Dragon X
by IceAge Mutant
Summary: Chelsea Marks hasn't exactly had the easiest of lives. She ran away when she was only 15, got captured by Hydra, was used as a test subject, escaped, and has been fighting to get away from them ever since. But after running into a certain clawed mutant at the bar one night, she might actually have the chance to find sanctuary
1. Hey

**Hey guys if you are here id like to say thanks for clicking on this. Anyways you might have seen my character Chelsea in** Skycrest's **story Azure Flame Wolf, and even though she is my character they can wright her better then me, so haha theres that. Also our time lines are a bit different , Azure Flame wolf is set during the series while mine is set afterwards. anyways i hope you guys enjoy this! i dont own anything except for Chelsea.**

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My name's Chelsea Marks, And I'm a mutant.

I'm 27 years old, and I've been a runaway ever since I was a kid. When I was 15 my powers developed and I ran away from home fearing what my family would think of their daughter becoming a monster. And I mean literal monster. I'm able to shape shift into a dragon, yeah I know it sounds crazy but it's true. Honestly I think running away was for the best. I didn't have much to stay for anyways. My parents were always at work, and therefore never at home, my three brothers were pains in the ass, not to mention the oldest constantly bringing girls and friends over, he was almost as bad as our parents when it cam to ignoring the rest of us.

No more than a few months after I ran away I was captured by a secret organization, and although I never knew their real name (being a prisoner I didn't have many privileges, not even knowing the people that held me captive). I did know what they were trying to do however. They were trying to make the perfect soldier, the perfect living weapon. They were trying to combine powers of many different mutants to achieve this and put into a single being. Their reason for this I still don't know

Now you might be thinking "What the hell would they want with a giant fire breathing lizard?" And that brings up my other "abilities". My body has an unnaturally high healing factor. What might take a regular human 6 weeks to heal a broken bone, it only takes me about two weeks, it really depends on how bad the injury is. Cuts and sprains are easy to heal, while bones are more difficult. Although the healing factor doesn't seem to work to well with keeping colds and regular illnesses away, which is fucking horrible.

Back when I was in the secret facility that held me captives, me and a few other prisoners had a name for the place. We called it Branch H23. What we knew from the guards' uniforms is that the real name started with an H, and we were apparently in branch, or section 23 of this corporation. The branch was made up of test subjects, mostly teenagers, along with a few younger kids. I made a few friends there, although the circumstances made that job difficult, but if I hadn't made those few friends, I never would have escaped. Now you may think that since I escaped, I would be free, right? Well you are dead wrong. The bastards at H-23 implanted tracking devices in us,causing me and the other kids I escaped with to constantly be on the run, to always try and get away and to avoid recapture. The plan to keep ourselves safe had only two rules: run, and if you can't run fight for your life. Anything to keep us out of those labs that they kept us in before.

For the past 3 years I have been alone though. My small team of runways was divided after a few years. Some died, some were recaptured, and some just couldn't go on without those who we had lost.

So now I'm a lone traveler. I ended up in a city called Bayvill, in New York State this morning. Tired and really fucking frustrated after being on a nonstop run for over a week, I decided to rent a room at some little off the road motel, just to get a shower and a few hours of sleep would be nice. Throwing off my clothes as soon I got to the bathroom, I started up the water, letting it get hot. Waiting for it, I looked at the mirror to my reflection. Caramel blonde hair and green eyes, I suppose I could be beautiful in someone's aspects. I guess I'm of average height, I do have a slim, but fit body, so I have that going for me. Finally feeling the steam of the shower against my body, I got in, washing the dirt of the week away. You wouldn't believe how valuable showers are when you don't have them on a regular bases. Getting out, I put on my cleanest cloths, which happens to be a pair of blue jeans and a white tank top. Exhausted, I lied down for some very needed sleep.

It's was only 8:30 P.M when I woke up. I was still tired, but I have learned to only sleep for a few hours, so I decide that I should go get some food.

Pulling on my favorite leather jacket, I locked the door behind me, I headed down the street to try and find some type of low-key bar or diner. As I walked, I can see a few signs in the windows of shops, all directed towards mutants. Most of them say things like "We don't serve freaks of nature" or "No mutants allowed". As you can guess these are all very direct at establishing peoples' feelings towards us. After the whole Apocalypse earlier this year, I guess humans have gotten even more hostile, even though it was a group of mutants that ultimately saved their sorry asses. I remember seeing it on tv, a group of teenagers and a few adults took down this extremely powerful mutant apparently, saving humanity and what not.

I came to a small dive bar down the road, it's red sign glowed slightly in the darkness of the streets, illuminating the words "Hogan's 'n Slogans". I pushed the door open, the musty smell of alcohol and hints of tobacco wafting up my nose. It was almost empty, spare a guy at the bar and two men at a pool table. I made my way to the bar and sat on one of the stools that dotted it, and took a quick look at a small menu propped up against a ketchup bottle.

"What can I get for you sug'?" A blond waitress in her 40's asks me from over the counter.

God I was craving meat. Honestly it was my favorite food I could usually get, no probably my favorite food in general. "You serve burgers at all?"

"You bet we do. Anything else?"

"A bottle of beer."

"No problem honey." She said grabbing a beer from a fridge underneath the bar. "Here's your drink and the burger will be out in a moment."

She turns and walks through a door that can only lead to the kitchen. Not knowing what else to do, I looked at the other occupants in the bar. The two guys at the pool table are probably in their mid 40s or early 50s, they didn't seem to notice that I came in, and are chatting and laughing as they shoot the small colored spheres across the green carpeted table. The other man sitting at the bar to my left, looks to be in his thirties. His hair black, stubble covers his face, giving him a gruff, somewhat mountain-man look. Dressed in a brown biker jacket and blue jeans, I couldn't help but admit that he was handsome, and my type of guy by the looks of things. Any other night I would have flirted at least a little with a guy like him, but the only thing on my mind right now was food.

The man must have noticed I was looking at him because he flashed his dark brown eyes towards me in an almost annoyed glare.

"Can I help you?" He he growled.

I said the first thing that came to mind. "No, you just looked familiar, that's all." It wasn't a complete lie, he did remind me of someone I had seen at some point in time, but it was hard to place my finger on it. Taking a swig of beer, I ran my fingers through my hair, still tired.

The waitress came out with my food, finally, to which I practically inhaled.

"You sure can eat for a small chick." The guy next to me stated. I rolled my eyes before replying, a mouthful of food still stuffed in my cheeks.

"You know, commenting on a girls eating habits won't get you any closer to getting in bed with her"

" What the hell gave you the idea that I would want to sleep with you?" He said placing down his glass of whiskey.

"Who wouldn't want to is the real question." I sarcastically said with a smirk. My associate only scoffed, but I could see a small smile play across his lips. He didn't seem too bad, and I was bored, so I went ahead and introduced myself. "My names Chelsea by the way." I gave out my hand, getting a firm shake in response.

"Logan."

"Logan, sitting in Hogan's 'n Slogans? Sounds like some damn tongue twister." He let out a chuckle under his breath.

"Yeah, guess it does."

"So you live around here?"

"What does it matter to you?"

" Hey I'm only going to be here for a couple of days and I need to find a proper laundromat and some place to get some supplies before I hit the road."

"Oh so you're a traveler, or...?"

Shrugging I gave my reply "Yeah I guess you could call me that." He didn't press further for anymore information, just let it drop and continued making progress on his whiskey.

"There's a camping store on Main Street, and a grocery store a block away from that."

"Thanks." I shoved the rest of my burgers into my mouth before I decided to speak again, only for me to be interrupted before I could start when the door swung open. Before I could even look behind me, I could see Logan tense up at the sight of whoever walked in. Being careful to not show my entire face, I took a quick glance over my shoulder. ' _Oh crap_ '.

There stood two men that I could identify all too easily. They were dressed in black polyester jackets, black pants, and sunglasses. A badge reading H23 over a skull with tentacles was placed on each of their shoulders.

' _Shit shit shit shit_!' I wasn't even here for a day and they already found me. For god's sake can't I catch a god damn break! There was only one way out of this and it would be to fight. I knew better to charge right at them, knowing that they were carrying electrical and tranquilizer guns under their jackets. The pool sticks I could use as a distraction though...

Jumping from my seat as fast as I could i grabbed a stick from one of the men at the pool table. "Sorry mind if I borrow those?" I quickly said before slamming the long pole into one of the H23 agents stomachs, and thank god it worked! He crumbled to the ground with a groan.

The other agent stuck his hand into his jacket, but before he could grab one of his guns, I slapped the pole into the side of his neck, making him stumble back. Not caring about my bill, I ran out the door as fast as I could.

I ran, and ran, taking as many twists and turns, and shortcuts through alleys as I could through the city. I suddenly found myself at a shipping yard, in a maze of large metal containers. Stopping to catch my breath, I realised my mistake when I heard the echo of boots against the concrete around me. "Crap..."

The first guards rounded the nearest container, guns already raised. Many others followed, forming an arch to keep me barricaded between them and the two containers

"Surrender now, and we won't have to shoot you down." On of the guards said, moving closer, making me back up into the shipping container behind me. "You know the how these guns work and I don't think you want to be reminded, girl."

"Damn right I do!" The thought of just getting hit by one of them sent a shiver up my spine. "Which is why you should BACK OFF!" I could see one of the guards out of the corner of my eye move, just on the edge of my vision, getting ready to take me by surprise.

"...Fine, I warned you..." The familiar feeling of scales spread over my body, starting at my forehead, along with the slight pain of my bones contorting and changing shape and adding extra. My jaw changed, replacing my teeth with sharper, larger ones. A the pair of leathery bat wings and the long spaded tail swang out behind me. A warm feeling spread through my chest, and my senses heightened. They smelt like what they always did, plastic and chemicals- wait, did one guy really get Chinese food before this?

I let out a roar, feeling the all too familiar fire start to ignite in my throat. I launched my flames at them sending them retreating only a few steps from my golden flames . The fire died down, only to reveal them standing there, unfazed- singed but in fazed. 'Fire proof suits? Really?!'

Seeing that I couldn't attack them with my preferred method, I launched myself at the men, gnashing my teeth and swinging my claws and tail. It was too tight between the shipping containers and until I could get to a bigger area , I wouldn't be able to fly off. So I raged on. It was a flurry of the guns and my own defenses. Many of them fired, and I narrowly missed the electric blasts and tranquilizers. I hit one of the men with my tail, sending him flying into the air. A few seconds later he came crashing down on one of his buddies, both looked horrible after the dust cleared.

I got very distracted in trying to defend myself from all my attackers, but suddenly, a horrible pain sprang through my shoulder. I let out a roar, part of my animal instinct that I couldn't suppress while wrapped up in chaotic setting of fighting and pain I was in. One of the electrical currents must have grazed me, luckily not enough to completely electrocute me, but still able to cause damage. I retreated to one of the containers behind me, bellowing flames to keep my enemies at bay. The pain hurt like hell, and now I definitely wouldn't be able to fly, the strain would be too much on my muscles that connected my wings and shoulder, and it would take at least a few hours before the tissue would be able to heal from such a shock. The sickening feeling of fear crept through my stomach. I couldn't go back to one of their damn bases, back to their labs... And the torture they performed there.

All of a sudden, a figure flew into the fight, landing between the guards and I. Crouched there was a man with dark hair, and dressed in a brown leather jacket.

"Logan?" I was very confused, for a number of reasons, but the most interesting thing was the the claws. Three on each hand sprouted from his knuckles, glinting silver in the light. He let out a strange sound, a mix between a snarl and a roar. Before any of the guards could fire, he charged at them, his claws slicing through their metal guns like they were butter, the detached parts clattering to the ground. A few of the guards cursed under their breaths, and I swore I heard a few of them say "not him again". In only a matter of seconds, this guy was able to practically take down the whole front of the group before both them and myself were snapped back to the situation at hand. Shaking my head to get over my surprise, I charged at the guards with my new...comrade I guess. We fought furiously side by side, taking down the guards left and right.

He was amazing to see fight, swinging his claws, and jumping and plunging them into our enemies. I myself had started charging at them, knocking their guns to the ground, and snapping up their bodies to fling away into the air.

Finally they started to retreat out of the shipyard once most of their allies were disbanded or injured.

We stood in silence for a minute, waiting to see if theyed come back. Logan finally broke the silence.

" You alright?" he asked, his dark eyes intentative, yet still holding a slightly crazed gleam in them, as if he would be ready to fight again if the situation called for it.

"More or less," I said shifting back into my human form "Thanks for the help." Logan grunted in response.

"Why are fucking Hydra agents after you?"

I raised an eyebrow."So that's their name?" He looked at me as if I was a moron. "They took me prisoner a few years back. I escaped and they've been after me ever since."

"D'you know how they're tracking ya?" He retracted his claws, followed by a "shnik!"

"My best guess is that they've put a tracking devise in me. I'd tear the damn thing out myself if I knew where it is." He growled, a deep rumbling sound from his throat, broke by his beard teeth.

"God damn it..." He looked at me as if contemplating a decision. Suddenly he grabbed my wrist, pulling me after him as we sprinted through the shipyard. "Come with me!"

We ran until we came back to this street that the bar was on. At first I thought he was stupid enough to come back here even though the people inside had seen me take down the first two guards and ran out the door (without paying), that is until I saw the motorcycle. My god it was a beautiful bike. Dark blue Harley Davidson, clean and shined handle bars. I had always thought motorcycles were cool, ever since my uncle had taken me to a show full of them, of course they were all dirt bikes but it was what got me to like them. This one was amazing and I couldn't help gaping at it.

We jumped on the bike, Logan pulled out the key and plunged it into its slot. It rived to life with a loud rumble .

"Hold on!" Logan yelled over the noise. I wrapped my arms around his midsection, ignoring the awkwardness of the gesture. The bike started moving and we sped off down the street. We passed numerous stores and businesses, and apartments as we sped through the city, before we retreated out passed the glow of the high rises and buildings, and took a road that seemed to lead to the country, or at least away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We started to slow down as the road lead to a huge private estate. The place was bordered by a coastal cliff on one side, and what looked like a small forest on the other. I could see a big mansion on the grounds, but that was about it until we pulled in through the tall, brass gate. And to say the mansion was big, was an understatement. It. Was . Fucking .huge.

"What the hell are you? A billionaire playboy who fights crime at night?" I said as the bike slowed to a roll as we moved towards a smaller building, a garage.

"You'd like that wouldn't you Goldy Locks?" Logan shot back, before taking off his helmet roughly, causing his dark hair to be ruffled.

"I think most women would..." I mumbled sarcastically, he gave me a look that seemed to say "what's wrong with you" and shook his head at me before walking off towards the mansion.

"Yeah, whatever. Just come on, and hurry up!"

As we entered the mansion, I couldn't help but let my jaw drop a little. It looked just as big on the inside, if not bigger with two large hallways that lead to what looked like a dinning room and a kitchen. There was a long set of elegant stairs, with two doorways on either side.

"Hank!" Logan yelled out. A little brunette girl, who looked to be about sixteen to seventeen, bounced to the railing at the top of the stairs, followed by another girl this one blond, who looked a little older.

"All I'm saying is that your hair would look really good if it had a more choppy look!" The blond said to the smaller girl, who just ignored her and looked to Logan.

"Mr. Logan, what is it. We all thought you were going to be back, like a lot later." She said with a valley girl like accent. She looked to me as if she had just noticed. "Who's she?"

"Don't worry about her, she's one of us," Logan replied sharply "but where the hell is Beast?"

"I thought you were looking for a guy named Hank?" I said, a little confused.

"Mr. McCoy? He's down in the lab. Why?"

"As I said before I thought we were looking for a 'Hank'". More confused.

"Surgery." Logan growled.

"WHAAT!?" I screamed, the other three looked at me with raised eyebrows. Yes, I did have a huge fucking fear of hospitals and doctors and anything else realeted. It would surprise you what torture and tests will make you have phobias of. Logan's expression changed to a more t annoyed look as he took in a breath.

"Listen, would you rather have hydra agents after you till the next time you have the chance to get the tracker out, or would you rather be done with them for good if we can get the damn thing out right now?"

"Wait, Hydra?!" The little brunette exclaimed.

"Chels we can get rid of it now and you'll be safe from them." He looked at me with those intense, dark eyes. " 'You trust me on this?"

I took in a breath and closed my own eyes before giving a nod. "Yeah, just... Just don't make me be the excremental of some crazed doctor."

"Sure thing, now follow me." He said, and turned to walk to one of the doors, which I found to be an elevator once I got in with him.

"uh… how many levels does this place have exactly?" I asked looking at the numerous buttons in the elevator.

"Six." Logan stated blankly, pressing one of them.

"Then why are there more than six buttons?"

"Why do you care?" He gruffly said, folding his muscular arms over his chest.

"well there's at least ten on the panel, and if there's only six levels… You know what forget i said anything." I saw that i wasn't going to get anywhere with this so i dropped the question. The doors closed, and we dropped down, after two floors the elevator 'binged' and the doors opened again. The level that we landed on didn't seem to be part of the same house. It was completely metal, everything from the walls to the ceiling. The setting brought a sour taste into my mouth from the resemblance to H23- I mean Hydra headquarters.

"Come on." Logan growled as he started walking down the long corridor. I followed, and we ended up taking a few turns before we reached what seemed to be a medical bay area, complete with a connecting lab. "Hank?" Logan called out as we walked inside the lab.

Suddenly, what looked like a giant blue gorilla dropped down from the ceiling.

I'll admit, I was a little bit surprised. "Holy shit!"

The ape guy held up his hands "Woh, woh, woh! Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you. I know my appearance might be frightening, but I can assure you I am like any perfectly normal human being."

I felt bad, I mean it was just the shock of him falling from the ceiling that startled me, not his appearance... Although I wasn't expecting it. "Sorry I just wasn't sure we would have mutants raining down today."

He gave a small smile at the joke "Very funny. My name is Dr. Hank McCoy, one of the staff members her at the school."

"Chelsea... Chelsea Marks." I stuck out my hand to shake, to which he did, with a very strong hand. "And don't mind me asking, but this is a school? I thought it was a huge private estate."

"It seems that way from the outside, doesn't it?" He smiled before turning to Logan. "So what can I do for you my friend?"

"Chels here, is a mutant, obviously I wouldn't bring her here if she wasn't." He said sarcastically. "She was being chased by Hydra, an old prisoner, probably experiment of theirs I'm guessing,"

"How'd you know that?" I questioned. I didn't even tell him that I was an experiment.

"Trust me I know these guys." He gruffly said glancing at me. "They're most likely tracking her with a chip. You can get that out can't you bub?"

"We'll have to get some x-rays first to figure out where the chip is. We should hurry though, we can't have them coming to the institute." Hank urgently said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Let's get this started, we need to end it as soon as possible."

After giving me a hospital shirt and preparing the X-rays, we were ready to find the damn chip. Logan leaned up against the wall, folding his arms with a grim expression in the corner.

"Does he ever lighten up?" I asked Hank as I walked towards him.

"It depends really," he finished up tuning the machine "he's usually happiest alone among alcohol."

"Doesn't sound like the only one..." I muttered under my breath to myself.

"I'm sure he's not." Hank came by, surprising me by his acute hearing. "Frankly you also smell of alcohol... And also smoke, or perhaps brimstone... You'll must tell me about your mutation when we are done." He then instructed me to get into position for the first x ray. We did four sets before he asked me to come behind the examination wall to take a look, two for both my arms, one for my skull, and another for my upper torso. We found the chip in the back of my right shoulder, and Hank wasted no time to prepare for the incision.

"I could have gotten this damn thing out this entire time if I had just racked my claws across my back!" I growled as I passed Logan to another part of the medical bay.

"What makes you say that?" He stuck his hands in his pockets of his jeans as he walked with me.

"I have an excessive healing ability, it would only take a few hours for the cuts to heal up if I got the depth right."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, why so surprised?" He chuckled deepen his throat, then brought up his arm, rolling the sleeve up. He then proceeded to bring out his shiny metal claws, and cut the inside of the other arm. His red blood oozed out before the wounds healed in a matter of seconds, closing up the skin like nothing had ever happened.

"Faster than mine, and I'll admit, that is impressive." I gave him a smirk "Maybe you can teach me to do that."

"Doubt it." He returned the smirk, but more coy. I stuck out my lip in a pout and glared at him humorously before walking to Hank who had set up his supplies next to a hospital bed table.

"I couldn't help but overhear the two of you over there, take it you won't want stitches?"

I pondered the thought for a second. "Nah I'll be fine, just wrap my shoulder in bandages and I should be good." He nodded understanding. He then proceeded to ask me to lay down on my stomach. He gave me a small dose of anesthetics, and had me remove the hospital shirt from my right shoulder before the drugs kicked in.

Soon enough I was drowsy, nodding in and out of consciousness. At some point I passed out because I woke up some time in the middle of the night, and I must have been naturally exhausted though because I drifted off again.

The next time I awoke it was just before six o'clock. Sitting up and rubbing my face, I looked around to find I was alone in the med bay. No sign of Logan or Hank, or anyone else for that matter. I did find my original clothes neatly folded at the end of my bed though.

'Thank god!' I mentally said to myself, jumping up eagerly to put them on. I was especially glad that my leather jacket was ok, the thing was my most prized possession. After getting fully dressed I started to walk out into the hallway, trying to remember the twists and turns back to the elevator. They surprisingly came back very easily in mental images to me. Once I found the elevator shaft, it opened almost automatically as soon as I pressed the button. Stepping inside, I leaned against the back wall.

' _Chelsea_?'

"What?" I said allowed. I swore someone called out to me. I was surprised when I heard my name being called again

' _Chelsea_.' The voice said. I'll admit I was a bit freaked out. I had run into mind controllers before, and let's just say it never ended well. As if reading my mind, the voice came back again. ' _Don't worry, I am not here to harm you, follow me and we shall talk in person_.'

The voice was definitely male, although it was quite soft, the way people talk while trying to calm someone down or earn their trust. This made me even more suspicious and skeptical. Sure two of the men that... I don't know, live, teach, here helped me out last night, but to be honest I didn't really know much about them beside that they were both mutants, and one of them was a doctor. As the doors opened, I found myself in the main entrance of the mansion again. I could have run out and away, like I have done so many times, but this time actually be free from a threat that had haunted me for most of my teenage and adult life. I was about to run out the door, but something stopped me. For some reason, I felt I should follow the voices orders, which was beyond my moral code about people who can speak inside your head, yet somehow I felt it would be the right thing to do. Being one to always trust my instincts, I turned around to the staircase, and made my way up it. Mental images flashed inside my head of the turns to take that I had never seen, yet they were clear, like memories of walking these halls many time before. I finally stopped at two large wooden doors. I was hesitant to go inside, not sure of what might be on the other side. I readied my claws, and was on the edge of shifting if a fight were to present itself. Slowly I opened the door.

The room looked like a grand office, with dark wood floors covered with a rich carpet. Bookshelves lined the walls, along with a large window at the other side of the room. There was a desk, but none of these were had my full attention, what did was the man behind the desk.

"Hello Chelsea," he said with a kind looking smile "my name is Professor Charles Xavier, welcome to my school for gifted youngsters."

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 **Hope you guys liked it, and go ahead and tell me wehat you think.**

 **ps sorry if any of the canon characters seemed ooc, i'll try to fix that**


	2. Here's my backstory

Ch2

The man who presented himself as Charles rolled towards me. I hadn't expected him to be in a wheelchair, then again I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I don't think it was I bald man in a chair.

"You seemed surprised," He said calmly. "As are most of the new people who I happen to meet."

"You were the guy that was inside my head!" That was the first thing to come out of my mouth. Nice job Chels, great first impression.

Xavier held up his hand "I know it can be a bit of a shock, to most people it is, but i am a telepath and it was the easiest way i could reach you. I will let you know I never go fully inside your mind unless I have permission, so you have nothing to worry about."

Instinctively I clasped my hands over my scalp, slightly pulling my hair. "Dude you just looked inside my head to see that I have a thing about people doing that!"

Despite my small outburst, the man in the chair seemed unfazed, besides having a slightly guilty smile. "I am sorry, I just wanted to get a sense of your perspective of telepaths such as myself." There was an awkward moment of silence before either of us spoke again. "Please, take a seat." He motioned to one of the two chairs on the closer side of desk, before rolling to the other. Hesitantly, I did what I was told.

"I'll let you know I am very happy that Hank was able to remove the the tracking chip, and from what he told me it sounds like you have recovered quite well?"

"Uh... Yeah." Why did I have to act like such an idiot in times like this?!

"Well I am glad to hear that," Charles gave me yet another warm smile before continuing. "It is absolutely terrible when people are chosen by Hydra, for anything. I'm glad we were able to help you hopefully discard them from your life. I'll say one thing though, I did not expect Logan out of all people to bring you here, although I am very glad he did."

"Me too," I said, relaxing a bit at the calmness of the older man. "I guess he saw me fighting them and decided I needed a little help. I take it he has tangled with those bastards before, hasn't he?"

His gaze became lighted at what I mentioned "Sadly yes, but it sounds like you were able to take care of yourself for a good amount of time from what he informed me though". He leaned forward, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on them. "If I may, do you mind me asking about yourself? I not only run this school for children, but all mutants are welcome. For that I would like to know about you, your family, powers, and life in general."

"Uh, ok." I placed my hands on the arms of the chair. "I was brought up in Monterey, California with my parents and my three brothers. I was the second oldest child, and the only girl, which meant I guess I have always been different from my siblings in at least one way. My father was a doctor and my mother worked as a financial manager, both were barely ever home because they were so focused on their work. A string of nannies practically brought us up until me and my older brother became old enough to help take care of the younger two. As I grew up I became more and more rebellious to try and get my parents attention. Let's just say that didn't work." I chuckled at the memories of the fights, which seem so stupid and immature now, but I was worried. This isn't like me, I barely ever tell anyone about my family, and when I do I usually have a lot of trust in them, this guy I just met! Yet the words continued to flow out of my mouth as if I couldn't stop them . "When I was fifteen my powers developed. It wasn't... All at once, I guess you could say. First thing that happened was one day while I was running with my track team I suddenly had a very hard time breathing. It felt like my chest was going to erupt in fire, which in a way it sort have did. I remember falling to the ground because I couldn't breath, and I thought I saw sparks or embers or something, come out of my mouth, but I thought I was just hallucinating from the lack of oxygen. I was taken to a hospital because I passed out, but the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me besides that my core temperature was unusually warm. Next what happened was large craving for meat, rise in aggression, and I started to notice my healing factor. And soon after I had my first shift."

I paused, afraid I might be boring Charles. I guess he read my mind or something, much to my distaste, because he gave me a reassuring smile. "Yes, go on. Don't worry I don't mind the details of your story." Taking a breath I continued.

"Of course at first I was afraid of what happened, I mean how often do you think I would have ever imagine turning into a giant mythological beast? I did... experiment with my powers though. I learned how to fly and shift at will, and also how to breath fire without sending it too far ahead of me and hitting something and turning it into a blazing inferno. But I started to get worried about what people would think of me, how they'd react and what they would do. I didn't feel like I should even stay at home sometimes, even before my powers developed so I took it as the que to get up and leave. My family wasn't close, my parents didn't really care for me, I had lost most of my friends due to my rising aggression before hand, and those I had remaining I feared would turn against me so I left."

"Many people tend to find themselves in situations as yourself when they discover their powers. They tend to think that running away will take them far from their troubles, while in actuality it only makes their problems worse. That's why I opened my school," explained Chuck, motioning to the area around us "so that those who have lost their homes due to their powers can have a place to turn to for help and guidance."

"Well, I guess you did something right there." I said with a chuckle. "If I had known about this place earlier... Let's just say it would have helped."

"I'm sure it would have." He laced his together in his lap as he leaned back in his chair. "Hank and Logan mentioned you were being tracked by Hydra agents, can you tell me about how you got involved with them?"

"Ah, ya sure." I said "After I ran away from home, I was living out on the streets for a few months. But I guess one day they found me because one minute i was walking down an alley, and the next thing I knew I was blacked out and woke up in a holding cell stripped of what little possessions I had, and not knowing where I was." I bit my lip at the memories of what happened there and how much I should reveal. "I was used as an experiment, along with many other mutants between 19 and about 9 years old. It was horrible, they kept us in such hellish conditions that if you died as a result of the tests they did on you it was considered one of the only escapes. I had watched so many kids try to take their own lives... even the young ones, it was just... it was just really hard to watch, let's put it at that."

The professor's brow was knit in a frown, as was my own, although clenching my jaw as I was doing probably made me seem more aggravated than I meant to be.

"What were the experiments they performed?" He asked in a more serious, and intrigued tone than before.

"It's a bit difficult to explain." I rubbed my hands together slightly as I sat forward. "They were all quite different, but most of the time the ones they did on us while we were conscious were to test our stamina, strength mentally and physically, intelligence, and endurance, from what I could guess. Some seemed to be to test our body's reaction to... Well whatever torture they submitted us to on a lab table. The ones performed while unconscious were usually surgical or something. We were never able to learn much, but we did find out that they wanted to make the perfect mutant to become a weapon. You know, to take over the world or something."

The professor's grim expression didn't lift. "This is quite disturbing to hear." He said sitting up straighter. "Luckily there are people who are working to stop Hydra, although it has been an ongoing battle for quite some time... But to use children, that's just abominable."

"You're telling me." I sarcastically remarked sitting back, crossing my arms and continuing sarcastically. "Glad to know that those guys are working so hard to stop them though."

"As I said it is an ongoing struggle." He closed his eyes for a moment no doubt in thought... Or doing something with that head of his. He looked at me, as if trying to make a decision. "I am guessing you have good control over your mutation though, and from what Logan saw from you in a short amount of time it seems you know how to fight and survive on your own?"

"Uhh...yeah I guess so. Why do you ask?"

He gave me a more lightened smile. "As I have said my school is open to all mutants. We have many children here at the moment, but not many staff members, and things can get a little... chaotic. We are always happy to add more teachers and instructors to help our students gain a better understanding of their powers and how live with them. You can stay here and train also, we are a team that has fought for mutants and humankind alike. Just earlier this year we were able to get rid of a very, very powerful mutant named Apocalypse, a crazed man who was bent on destroying and recreating the human race."

"Wait that was you guys?!" I asked, quite surprised. Then again I should have figured it out by now, it was a school full of mutants, like the ones I had heard about at the time of these events. "Yes it was. I can still say that I am very proud of them for helping save the world," his face shown with kind pride "and we will continue to do so if matters as such arise again, that is the goal of the X-Men. And for that we are always looking for new members. I am offering you not only a job here but also home."

"You want me to be a teacher here? Listen Chucky, sorry but I don't have any experience with that sort of thing. Plus I'm not really a huge fan of kids." I said holding up my hands to deny the offer. Although it did sound nice to be in a group, or team, or whatever the hell you wanted to call it again. I did miss it. And it sure would help to have a place to live... "How old are most of the kids and what would you have me do?" I was seriously starting to reconsider and hope I didn't already mess up my chance.

"Most of the children are in their teenage years, the only exceptions are Scott and Jean who are now in college, and have started as instructors also, so I suppose you can't call them children anymore." He gave me another warm and hopeful smile. "And as I stated you will most likely teach them how to work as a team to use and control their powers, something with someone with experience like yourself has had. Chelsea you will have a roof over your head, at least three complete meals every day, people who will care and look out for you, and a won't have to run away anymore." I bit my lip as he continued "What do you say? Will you become X Men?"

I made my decision, nodding "Yes."

* * *

 **hey guys so hope you enjoyed chapter 2! Kinda disappointing that i didn't get any reviews on the last chapter so please if that would be great so i know what you guys think or so i can improve the story if needed. Thanks for reading**


	3. The danger Room

Ch 3

"Yes." I nodded to professor Xavier, a small smirk quickly widening my across my cheeks. He stuck out his and for me to shake, which I did so willingly "Yes I will join the X Men".

"That is wonderful!" He grinned as he released my hand "I'm sure that you would like to retrieve your belongings from anywhere you might have been staying?"

"Yeah that would be great!" I said. "I was at a motel in town, but could I have a ride down there? I don't have any cash to call a cab and I don't think the pedestrians will be too thrilled about a giant dragon flying through their city."

Charles momentarily closed his eyes before looking at me. "Yes of course, I will have one of the older students or staff drive you down there, but first I would like to introduce you to the institute. Everyone should be coming out of their morning training session and will be coming up to breakfast soon, and since it's a Saturday the students won't have to race off to school as normal".

"Wait this is a school, and yet they have to go out to public school also? Why don't you just teach them here?" I asked, confused.

"Well we do need some time away from them." The professor stated smirking "You'll see if you become one of the instructors."

"Oh yes things like that totally make me want to become one even more." I stood up and was about to walk towards the door when it suddenly opened. A beautiful African woman walked in, with flowing pristine white hair cascading down her shoulders. I'll admit, if I was a lesbian, I would totally try to hit that, but as I am straight, all I could feel was intimidation from the woman's extraordinary good looks.

"Chelsea, I'd like you to meet Ororo Munroe, also known as Storm." She stuck her hand out for me to shake, before greeting me in a rich voice.

"Pleasure to meet you." She said as we shook hands.

"Right back at ya." I gave her a smile. "And what's up with people in this place having two names?"

"Their code names for the team." She explained "If you end up here , you'll get one. Now if you don't mind, word is swirling around the institute about how Logan brought home a woman last night, and I think he would appreciate it if you can help make it clear you were here for medical reasons. Also it would prevent me from answering anymore questions I don't have the answer for."

"Uhh, sure." She gave me a nod and made her way towards the door. "Follow me." I walked behind her, and the professor rolled along behind me until he had to stop at the elevator. Storm and I took the stairs, and after turning at the entryway into one of the corridors, we ended up in the large dining hall I had seen last night. And it was crowded. Very, very crowded.

Every seat at the table had a kid sitting in it, most looked to be between 14-18, although a few looked older. I also saw Hank and Logan at the far end.

"Everyone," Charles rolled up behind me, earning everyone's attention. "I'd like you all to meet Chelsea Marks, the newest member of the X Men."

From somewhere down the table came a whistle. "Damn Wolverine nice catch." Said a boy with brown hair. What happened next was a girl saying "Bobby!" disapprovingly, a snarl from Logan.

"Listen Popsicle, unless you want double training lessons with me I recommend not being such a smart ass".

"Logan." Charles said, as if it were a warning. The clawed man growled, muttering something under his breath. "Anyways, Ms. Marks here will hopefully be teaching you all in training sessions along with Storm, Wolverine, and Beast."

"Wait professor," a young man with brown hair and red sunglasses sat up looking at us. "You're just going to hire her right off the bat? Have you ever seen her fight, or even her mutation yet? How do you even know-"

"Scott she is not working along side anybody, don't worry. And on terms of her skills, I have not seen them yet , but Logan has, and he says that she seems to have lots of control over her powers and is an excellent fighter."

"Yeah, she's not too shabby." Logan said leaning back on his chair and crossing his arms.

"So, what is your power?" Asked a girl with long red hair sitting next to the man with glasses. "I'm Jean by the way."

"Nice to meet you," I gave her a nod. "And I'm a shape shifter."

"Cool!" Said a girl down the table, who I recognized as the brunette I saw last night. "Can you, like, turn into a lot of different things?"

"No just one".

"Well what is it?" Asked a younger boy who looked to be twelve.

"I can turn into a dragon," I said, rubbing the back of me neck sheepishly. "With all the glory of wings and fire."

"Cool! Can we see?"

"Oh my god Jamie You are such a nerd!" The kid Logan had growled at exclaimed.

"I would show you but their isn't enough room in here." I pointed out, then turned my attention to the boy that was deciding to be an asshole. "And if you think my mutation nerdy, I'll show you just how good a giant, man eating, fire breathing reptile is in a fight". I was proud to get a few snickers from that

"Actually it wouldn't be a bad idea to see your powers in action." Storm pointed out. "That way we will be able to see exactly how good you are in battle."

"Oh yeah, how are you going to do that?" I lifted an eyebrow at her. She smiled at me before turning back to the table.

"If anyone would like to watch this session please come down to the danger room after breakfast." She said "And Logan,since you are the only one who has seen her fight, I'd like you to set up the program".

"Gotch ya." He replied, picking up his empty plate and walking out of the room.

"Follow me." We walked back to the elevator going down three stories. This level looked like the one the medical bay was in, with the same mental walls and floors. We walked down a few hallways, and stopped at a what looked like a closet. Logan rummaged through it until he pulled out something that appeared to be clothing.

"Here put this on." He blankly said.

"What, do you want me to strip here in the hall?" He didn't crack a smile at the joke.

"Down the next left, there's locker rooms, put that on and meet me outside when you're done."

I did as I was asked. The uniform was a tight fitting, and all black except for yellow boots, gloves, and a belt. "My god, who the hell made this thing?" I commented coming out of the locker rooms, where Logan was leaning against the wall outside.

"To be honest, I have no fucking clue, and I don't care either." He turned and smirked at me. "Then again mine doesn't look like a bumble bee."

"Aren't you a lucky bastard." I returned his smirk. "Any chance I'll get one that isn't so... stupid looking?"

"Probably. Most of us except the new recruits have one that's specialized."

"Arn't I a new recruit?"

"Yeah, but since your gong to be an instructor you'll have one that's designed just for you."

"Really? Well I guess I'll just have to wait and see mine."

We walked down one more hallway and ended up in front of a large metal door. Logan pressed,in a combination in a keypad at the side, and the doors slid open. "Welcome to the Danger Room". He said "This is where we train, and so will you. And since you're older you'll be lucky enough to go through the harder sessions. Hope you can handle it."

"Please, if I can handle the fights Hydra put me in with the other kids, I should be able to take on anything you throw at me."

"The made you fight other mutants?" He asked turning to me.

"Yeah, at the beginning I think they put us against each other to see who was stronger in each match, take out the weak and keep the strong. Then as time progressed it was mostly for experiments".

"They've always been sick bastards."

"Yes they have."

He turned to me and, throwing his thumb towards the sliding metal doors. "Listen, I need to set up the program. Just wait here until it's up and running, and when it starts just try not to surrender within the first five minutes."

"I'll try my best." I said sarcastically with a grin. He returned the smile as he walked out of the room. A few minutes later a low hum came from the walls of the so called danger room, along with Logan's voice from a hidden speaker

" _Your objective is to fend off whatever comes at you._ "

I could hear the clicking sound of machines, and suddenly I was being shot at. Not actual bullets, but lasers, although I wouldn't want to be hit by one of those either. They flew through the air straight towards me, and I almost got hit by the first few. I was able to catch sight of the gun they were being fired from, it was placed up on the ceiling on some type of rolling hinges, because the thing was moving around the top of the room trying to hit me from different angles, I figured that by disabling that, I would be good to go.

I ran at the laser gun, flipping, jumping, sliding, and contorting my body so that I wouldn't get hit. Adrenaline rushed through me as I ran to the gun that was mounted on the ceiling. I shifted as I got up close to it, and at the last minute i jumped up, pushing myself higher with my wings, and ripped the machinery away from the wall with my massive jaws. Their was a few sparks from the wires, but besides that everything seemed to be fine.

"Level one complete." Said an automatic voice. "Initiating level two."

"What?" I exclaimed. "How many fucking levels are there?!"

Logan's voice came over the intercom. "Well that depends on how far you can go before you drop out."

"Well buddy, sorry to disappoint you but that might be a while," I looked up to the control room where I could make out his form through the glass. "Now you can do better than just some little lasers, can't ya?"

* * *

Up in the observation deck of the danger room, members of the X Men watched the newest recruit overcome one level after another.

"She's really , like, pretty good, even when she's not using her powers". Kitty said from her seat on a bench "Wonder if she's done any sports to help with that."

"There is that possibility," Rouge looked to her roommate before continuing sarcastically . "But then again she did fight in Hydra for a few years, so that might have something to do with it".

Scott who had been looking out of the windows walked over to the professor who was sitting behind part of the control panel next to Logan. "So professor," he said "What level of mutant do you think she is?"

"That is a good question," Xavier turned to the young man in the visor. "Her powers on a scale of one to five is really only a two. But it's the sheer control she has over herself and the advantageous her other form has that can a rank her up to a three... I've noticed that her scales are able to deflect most incoming injuries,and if there is not enough force she won't be affected at all it seems. When she's a dragon she also possesses mass amounts of strength, and for a creature that size she is quite agile." He typed in a command before continuing. "Her healing factor, although not as strong as Wolverine's, allowed her to heal small injuries that she has sustained. If you saw when she was hit by one of the metal disks in one of the previous level, the wound heals within a few minutes because it was small, I'm not sure how well she can be influenced if she were to sustain a larger injury though. Also I'm sure you have noticed the ability to breath fire, which seems to be extremely hot considering it was able to melt some of the machinery, that alone would be worthy as a power, and would be extremely useful in battle since she doesn't have to come close to an enemy for it to take action."

"She is a legitimate myth." Kurt said out of no where as he teleported next to Kitty and Rouge. "Wonder if their are any other monsters from history."

"Sure, maybe next we'll find a Sasquatch!" His adopted sister sarcastically remarked, hitting him upside the head.

"Hey he could be right." Jamie said, looking to the goth. "Maybe there's a whole race of mutants with powers of mythological beasts. That would be so cool!"

"Jamie you're just excited that there might be a possibility of Dungeons and Dragons in real life." Kitty said, to which most of the teens in the room snickered at.

"Hey it's a possibility!"

The instructors ignored the younger teammates, continuing watching the dragoness below them.

"Chuck, by the damage she's causing it's going to take more than a little cash to fix this." Logan growled, typing in new commands.

"I agree, she almost inflicts as much damage as you," the professor replied, raising an eyebrow at the clawed mutant. "Luckily with Forge we have our own personal mechanic."

"Wonder how good she is at hand to hand combat?" Jean said allowed to no one in particular.

"Believe me she's pretty impressive that too." Logan answered. He was about to type in another command, but let his hand hover above the controls. "But it wouldn't hurt to test her again. Turn the danger room off." He got up and walked towards the door, pulling his uniform's mask over his face.

"Hey, looks like we're going to have one hell of a fight to watch!" Bobby called out to everyone in the room as he watched his instructor leave. "Who wants to make a bet that Wolverine is going to crush her within the first ten minutes!?"

* * *

I was panting by the time all the machines turned off, and let's just say this was getting more and more difficult.

"Am I done?" I shouted up to the control room as I hunched over placing my hands on my knees, sweat pouring down my face. " Jesus fucking christ this is hard." After level one, all the sessions would progressively get harder, and by the time i had flying chainsaw disks coming at me they all just started to meld together, I have no idea where I'm at now.

Suddenly the metal doors slid open.

"Not too bad," Logan said as he walked through the doors. He wore some type of uniform, I guess, it was orange and black with a mask, and very form fitting, showing off his muscular body. I'll admit I stared for a few seconds before snapping out of my trance

"Oh yeah, yours doesn't look like a bumble bee, it looks like a wasp."

"What?" He stared at me, lifting an eyebrow in confusion.

"Well earlier you said that "at least my uniform doesn't look like a bumblebee", now I can see why because it's the color of a wasp." He still looked confused.

"Sure whatever." He growled before letting a smirk come across his face. "But I would stop talking if I were you and get ready to fight again."

"Aw shit, what the hell! The machines already turned off so I'd say I don't have anything to fight."

"Not machines blondie," his smirk turning into a toothy grin. "Me." Next thing I knew I was almost decapitated .

He threw his arm out at me, metal claws coming straight toward my face. I narrowly missed my cheek being torn apart as his fist skimmed my collar bone. He brought his other hand toward my stomach, only for me to block it with my forearm as I held onto his other wrist with my left hand. I jumped up, still holding onto him, and kicked him in the stomach, sending him back and causing me to let go.

"Not a bad start," he growled "but let's see if you can really handle the Wolverine!" He charged at me at full force, swinging and jabbing his claws at me. I backed up and started to shift, turning my hands into claws I punched him in the face with my extended limb, sending him flying.

"Not bad for a start," I commented copying him. "But let's see if you can handle the Dragoness!" My scales enclosed the rest of my body, releasing my other form completely as they covered my face, my nose and mouth turning into a sharp toothed snout. I roared at him, shot into the air, breathing fire down at my target. As the flames died down, he launched himself up at me, not making it very far. I swung my spike spayed tail, only for him to latch on instead of being hit.

' _Son of a bitch_!' He plunged his claws into my hip as he climbed up, blood trickling out of the wound. I roared, throwing him off as my body contorted. Both of us landed on the ground, and the fight started again. This time I ran at him, trying to bite him with my knife like teeth. He raked his claws across my snout, earning a sharp roar in response. I snapped my jaws around his arm, tossing him to the other side of the room. Our battle ensured for at least another twenty minutes. and after having the tip of my tail cut off, I'd had enough. I had been in here for at least over an hour, and I hadn't eaten anything since last night. I was ready to end this stupid session.

"Ok you son of a bitch," I growled, turning back into my human form. "I am starving, my shoulder is a little sore still, and I really want a fucking breakfast burrito or something, so apology in advance if I dislocated, break, or severely burn something!" I sprinted toward the so called "Wolverine", once again my scales enveloping my body, changing into the huge bulking mass of red that came with extra strength. I jumped at him as I got close, outstretched one of my claws, only to be met with his. Annoyed, I whipped my tail at him, tossing him to the side, then proceeded to pounce on him. I held him down with my front legs, much to his attempts to stab me, he got nowhere with it. He roared at me, I returned it, straight in his face much louder, letting a few sparks fly out of my mouth.

"Ok dragon breath, ya pass." He growled, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips, only to disappear quickly. "Now get off me!"

Shifting back into my original form, I grinned as I still held his arms over his head, gripping my legs around his muscular torso. "I do you know why I like to fight guys?" I smugly said. "It's because it's always so easy."

With barely any effort, Logan tossed me off, causing me to skid a few inches. "Your lucky I didn't gut you for defying my order there." He said with a scowl as he got up. It looked like he was going to walk away, but instead be turned to me, outstretching a hand. "But I'll say one thing," his smirk returning. "You're the only one to pin me on there first try here at the institute, so good job.. I guess. You just finished your first training exercise."

* * *

 **so guys what did you think? sorry i about the bad action scean, im not good at writting those yet Thank you to every one who faved and followed the story, and please, please, please give me some reviews! i only have one so far (special thanks to FuzzyElf24), and they really help me with writing the story. also i like to know what you guys think, and what i should improve, or if there's any mistakes i keep making, let me know**


	4. Driving and Shopping

Ch3

After my first training session in the danger room, I was exhausted. I mean I didn't want to sleep exactly, but I was going to kill someone if I didn't eat soon. After getting out of the metal clad room, Logan and I went our separate ways, I was shown to where I would be staying, and him to... well wherever the hell he goes.

As he walked off, the redhead I met at the dining room, Jean, came up to me.

"Nice job in there," She said with a smile. "Nobody has beat Wolverine in a training session on their first try."

"Thanks," I replied, "It's really just about pinning someone then letting your strength take over to hold them down, a simple trick."

She giggled. "Well I can assure you most of the students are going to wish they could become big enough to take him down."

"Yeah I bet they will. So what now? Please tell me I can get a shower and some food, I am starving and pretty sure I smell like something died on me."

"Of course. But first let me show you to your room. Since you're going to be an instructor, you're lucky enough to have a suite of sorts." She said as we walked out of the Danger Room.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as we made our way to the elevator.

"Nothing," she shook her head. "You're just going to get a private bathroom instead of having to share one like most of the students. Believe me it's a gift when you're a girl."

"I can imagine." We took the lift up to the second story after the ground level, and started to walk down one of the hallways. She told me about how long she had been going to the institute, how much it helped her, and I in return told her about my travels.

"So what's your power?" I asked as we came to one of the doors, stopping for her to open it.

"I'm a telekinetic," she said, the door swinging open farther than it would have on its own.

"Able to move objects with your mind?" I smirked.

"Yeah. Am also a telepath, but I'm guessing your aren't a huge fan of insight powers"

Of course the first thing to come out of my mouth was defensively rash. "You look inside my head again and I swear to god I will chard you to a crisp!" I growled at her.

"Hey don't worry I won't! It's against school rules anyways. The professor told me that's all."

"Sure he did." I skeptically glared at her. "Listen as long as you don't invade my mind you and I should get along swimmingly, got it strawberry?"

She sighed, in a way that made her seem like she was too tired to continue this conversation. "Sure whatever. Listen I'm sorry that made you uncomfortable, guess I should have told you the professor told me before I explained that."

"Yes that would have been a smart idea. Even if he's giving me a place to live I don't like the thought of him being able to hear... well all my thoughts!" I growled

"Yeah I know, most people don't like it." She rubbed her arm awkwardly. "Well I guess I should let you take a shower, and unpack."

"I didn't bring my stuff with me last night." I said leaning against the door frame. I felt sort of bad for snapping at her like that, but still better her know verbally instead of finding out and becoming chopped meat. "Do you think I could get a ride later to the motel I was staying at?"

"Yeah, I'll see if Storm or one of the students can drive you." She was about to leave but turned around, with a sly smile "Who knows, maybe even Logan will take you."

As she left, I wondered _Why the hell you'd she say that?_ Does she think I like him? I mean sure he's good looking, but I haven't even known him for 24 hours yet!

I let the thought of what she said slide out of my mind, and instead looked at my new room. It was very simple, light walls, plain carpet, a bed with a nightstand on each side topped with lights, a dresser, and big windows were all that were in it. To the right of the door though there appeared to be a bathroom, and on the left a closet. Although it was simple, it was very luxurious, like what you might find in a nice hotel. The only thing that seemed out of place was a bundle of clothing that I found on the bed, which turned out to be the clothes I walked in here with. As I picked them up they seemed cleaner than before, as if they had been washed. I would just have to ask about that later, but right now I stank like a skunk and would take advantage of the private shower.

After cleaning myself off and washing my hair I went downstairs to the kitchen that I had seen when I first walked in. As I entered, I saw three girls all chatting around the kitchens island table. One was the brunette I saw last night, the other two consisted of a Brazilian looking girl who seemed to be around fifteen or sixteen, and a goth who seemed a little older.

I knocked on the door frame to get their attention. "Hey can I get something to eat in here."

The brunette looked at me, replying perkily. "Sure there's some stuff in the fridge if you want..."

I technically sprinted to the fridge, finding a frozen breakfast burger at first sight. "OH thank god!"

Grabbing the sandwich, I ripped opened the plastic seal, not wanting to wait for the microwave, I just blasted the thing with my own fire.

"Jeez yah must be really hungry." The goth said, unimpressed.

"Believe me kid you have no idea." I then took a huge bite out of it. The girls were staring at me as if I were a savage animal, which wasn't far off. "What?"

"Nothing." The brunette said, giving me a smile. " Chelsea, right? I'm Kitty by the way."

I gave her a nod, but raised an eyebrow "Kitty?"

"Real names Katherine, but I prefer Kitty." She explained. "Oh! And this is Amara and Rogue."

"Hi!" The tanner girl waved.

"Hey." The goth who I assumed was Rogue didn't seem to interested in talking.

"You did really great in the danger room today by the way." Said Amara.

"Thanks, but if you don't mind me asking how does that whole place work?" I asked as I took another bite of my breakfast.

"The Danger Room? To be honest no one really knows except for Forge and the professor I think." Kitty said. "I can't get a computer to work let alone that place."

"Yeah, in tech class one time she was able to make a mouse fall apart somehow." Rogue said, which Amara and I chuckled at.

"Oh come on it wasn't my fault!" Kitty protested.

"Then how do you explain the teacher trying to get you to understand how to hook it up to the computer?"

"Oh shut up!"

I snickered at the childish argument one more time before asking another question that I needed an answer for. "So...what are your powers?"

Kitty walked through the kitchen island towards me. "I'm able to phase through objects, like, if you can't tell." She said, finishing her proud little strut coming to stand next to me.

I looked at the other girls. "What about you two?"

"It wouldn't be a good idea to show you the full extent of my abilities inside," Amara fiddled with one of the buttons on her white jacket. "But I could show you a little bit of it."

"Then please, go ahead." I leaned against the island, waiting to see what the young girl could do.

Lifting up one of her fists, it erupted in fire. "I'm able to generate lava, and on occasion control it."

"Impressive." I nodded to her. "Used to know a kid that could do that too, control it anyways. She'd always have to bring it up from the earth though, and it would usually be quite dangerous with either creating a small volcano or almost frying me." I smiled. "Luckily the wings of mine would usually take me away or the scales would help with the heat."

"Really? Cool, what happened to her?"

I was silent for a second. I knew what happened, but it didn't feel right revealing the information to some kids I have just became acquainted to. "I lost track of them. We only traveled together for a little while."

"Oh." She said, disappointed, but then a smile came back to her face as soon as it had vanished. "Well, who knows, maybe you'll run into them again."

I snorted. "Yeah that will be the day." I took another bite of my breakfast before looking at the so called Rogue. "So, what about you? What can you do?"

"Well A'h can't exactly show ya either." She snapped.

"Damn Southern Sass, no need to get so defensive." I said. "Just asking, I thought it would be something good to know, that's all."

"If ya ever call me that again, you'll get a taste of mah powers first hand." She glared at me. "And believe me you don't want to."

"Ok, ok, forget I asked." I calmed trying to back off. Why did teens have to be so angsty?

Sighing and running my hands through my hair, I looked at the other two. "Hey do you guys know who I can ask for a ride into town? I need to get my stuff from my motel and pick up some supplies."

Kitty's face contorted into a grin that I swear would tear her cheeks if stretched any further, and her eyes lit up like a pyromaniac's when confronted with a raging inferno. "I totally know someone who will gladly give you a ride!"

Have I ever feared for my life before? Yes. Around teenagers? At times. But in a car? No.

At least not until five seconds after we pulled out of the garage, now I understand why Rogue and Amara acted like they were going to their deaths when the little devil herself dragged them out of the mansion,

"Oh yeah here we go!" Kitty pushed the large van into gear and we were off. Next thing I knew we almost got into four car accidents, AND drove off a bridge in less than three minutes.

"WATCH FOR THE TRUCK! WATCH FOR THE TRUCK!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Rogue and Amara were practically creating claw marks in the backseat a as they held on for dear life. The driver from hell took many other dangerous twists and turns, and actually PHASING us through other vehicles. On countless occasions I had to grab the wheel to steer us back on the other side of the road. We finally came to a screeching halt at my motel.

"It's, like, this place right?" Kitty asked, as if we didn't just cause a huge traffic jam and many accidents.

I pried my fingers that had started to turn into claws off the armrests of my seat. "Y-yeah, yeah this is the place." I stuttered as I caught my breath. "Uh.. Kitty, mind helping me with my stuff?"

"Sure." She jumped out of the car, and I followed, cursing under my breath.

We walked into my room, and I quickly grabbed my few belongings, stuffing them into my duffle bag.

"That's it?" She was obviously surprised. "Ok, we are totally going to the mall on the way back. I'm sure the professor won't mind if we ask Kurt to teleport over here with a credit card."

"Yeah sure Kitten." I said distracted as I zipped up my bag. As I finished I turned to her. "I just have one condition."

"What?"

I snatched the car keys out of her hands. "I get to drive!"

"What! Come on I was doing fine." She complained.

"Kitty, I love anything that will give me an adrenaline rush, roller coasters, horror movies, free falling hundreds of feet above the surface of the earth, but sitting in a car with you driving is absolutely terrifying!" I growled.

"Oh please, if I was that bad I wouldn't have been able to get my driver's license." She flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"How the hell did you even get that in the first place!?"

"Oh my god, just, like, relax, ok!"

I heaved a sigh. "Sorry to snap at you kiddo, I get angry when I'm stressed out." I shouldered my bag and gave her a smile. "But hey, you look like a girl that likes to shop, and we are going to the mall, and as long as it's not too ridiculous I'll let you dress me up in one outfit, _one_." Her eyes lit up like she had just received a puppy or something. "But I don't guarantee I'll buy it"

After we left the room and returned to the car, we sat in it for a moment so that the Kitty could try to "contact" the professor. About five minutes later a boy with dark hair appeared in a ring of smoke on the hood of the car.

"So I take it this is Kurt?" I asked the girls in the back seats.

"Yep, mah idiotic brother." Rogue grumbled.

"Brother? You guys don't look anything alike." I pointed after swiveling my head to take a look at both of them.

"Yeah well, Ahm adopted."

"Who's your parents?"

"Only know one, a total bitch." She looked out the window, obviously not wanting to continue the conversation. Well she's definitely gets an approval from me on not caring.

The boy slid off the hood, and went to the passenger side window where Kitty sat. "So I heard you guys needed this?" He held out a credit card between his fingers, which Kitty grabbed.

"Yeah thanks for bringing it over!" She smiled at him, and he grinned

"What's it for?" He asked, leaning on the window.

"We're going to head to the mall so that the oh so powerful Dragoness here can get some clothes." She grabbed my duffle bag from the back seat. "Can you believe is all she has?!"

"Compared to a hoarder of clothes like you yes." He watched as I snatched my things back from Kitty, and almost hit Amara when I threw it in the back.

"Oh fuck, sorry!" He chuckled, before smiling at me.

"Good job in za Danger Room by ze way." He said. "But I should get going, I don't vant to be sucked into a shopping spree." He waved and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. I then started up the car, and we were on our way to the mall. I listened to the conversations and directions that Kitty and Amara gave me, while Rogue was... absolutely silent. She seemed like a girl that could stick up for herself, and give who ever pushed her hell, so I didn't understand why she wouldn't fight harder to not go on this trip since she seemed so miserable.

We finally got to the mall and looked at quite a few shops before stopping for lunch, and i got to say the girls were pretty fun to be around, even Rogue opend up a bit, making some witty remarks. But after being dragged through countless stores by Kitty and Amara, I had finally put my foot down at one clothing place saying that this would be the last one. I had gotten many pairs of greatly needed jeans, T-shirts, tank tops, along with some new boots, and at one point Kitty tried to talk me into getting a new leather jacket. That was a huge ass no on my part, considering my current one has...well, been through everything with me. Sure it might be old, but it's comfortable and worn into my liking.

At the moment we stood in the checkout line at a drugstore that I had to go to get a toothbrush, shampoo and conditioner, and a few other essentials. And by "we", I mean Rogue and I, Kitty and Amara ditched us to go look at makeup products.

I was tapping my foot impatiently when all of a sudden the little goth spoke up. "Hey... Ahm sorry for being so rude earlier."

I turned to her giving a small smirk. "Hey no problem, people have treated me worse."

"It's just... I've always had trouble when connecting to new people, even after Ah joined the X Men and I had a new family. I was so used ta blocking people out that it has always stuck with me." She rubbed her gloved hands, lowering her voice. "Mah powers don't make it any easier to get close people."

"Hey kid, it's no problem, really. I tend to be like that too. Hell, I'd probably still have my walls up if that professor of yours didn't do something to me to make me calm down."

"He wouldn't do that." She protested.

"Hey, I'm not sure he even did, okay? But I know I don't open up that easily about my past as I did to him." I gave her a smirk, flashing my teeth. "But he was kind to me, trustworthy, seemed nice enough to not eat one of his limbs."

"Your kinda evil, you know that?"

"Please sweetheart, you have no idea." She smiled at me, and I took it that was a good sign. "By the way, what are your powers anyways? I know earlier you wouldn't tell me, but since we're going to be teammates, and I might be training you it wouldn't be a bad idea to know what you're capable of."

"I have the ability to absorb other people's memories and skills... and sometimes powers if they're one of us." She explained with a dark expression.

"Can you control it?" She looked up, as if that was a question out of the ordinary.

"N-no. I can't." She pulled her gloves tighter. "But what I would give to be able to..."

I gave her a nudge on the shoulder, smiling. "Well who knows, maybe one day you will. I mean you go to the institute to learn how to control your powers, and I bet, with time and effort, you will."

She flipped her hair to the side with a huff. "I'm not even able to tap someone without getting something from them."

"Kid, I have met a lot of people, and some of them were very powerful. But they taught me, if you don't breach out, and give the chance to learn more about your gifts, you will never get anywhere when it comes to learning about them. Sometimes you need to go out of your comfort zone to become more experienced."

"Even if you put others in danger?"

"Especially then." I grinned. "Just don't try to completely kill them."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Mah statement stands, your kinda evil." Then she did something I hadn't seen her do yet; she smiled. "But I guess everyone is in their own way."

After checking out and Kitty and Amara caught up with us, we got back to the car and made our way home. This time Rogue sat shotgun next to me, and we had a small conversation. She told me where she was from, how she discovered her powers, and how she came to be an X Man after leaving another group of mutants called the Brotherhood.

"They sound like a bag of dick." I commented as we pulled onto the driveway of the mansion

"Try livin with them." She grumbled. Kitty popped her head over from the back seat.

"Try dating one of them." She smirked that softened within a few moments. "But they aren't as bad as they used to be. They actually helped us in the fight with Apocalypse."

"Really?" I inquired, giving her a glance as we pulled into the garage. "I still can't believe you guys, _a bunch of kids_ , stopped the end of the world."

"We tend to have luck like that." She grinned, getting a chuckle from the rest of us. We jumped out of the car, and I followed the three of them once I grabbed my bags from the trunk. Amara held the door open for me as I entered the mansion, since my hands were full of shopping bags.

"Well I guess the rest of the day is yours." She smiled up at me. "Feel free to look around... Oh! And dinner's at seven by the way."

"I'll keep that in mind." I watched as her and Kitty went off down of the halls that were on either side of the stairs, while me and Rogue went up the carpeted steps to the girls wing, me to unpack my stuff, and her... to do i don't know what.

After putting my new assortments of clothes in the dresser or closet, I took a walk around the top two floors of the mansion, although the higher was really a refurbished attic by the looks of it. I could smell Storms scent as I got close to the door, so I assumed that was her quarters. I took the elevator down to the ground level again, and looked around the numerous rooms there, which were a library, computer room, den that seemed to double as a bit of an arcade considering that many different video game consoles were near the TV, and also that there was a pool table and foosball table. In the back yard there were tennis courts, a large pool and jacuzzi that I just had to use later. My god that would be the most relaxing treatment I would have had in a while. I was also right about the woods that were siding the left grounds of the institute. If I was allowed, and if there was game, I can tell you that I'd be spending a lot of time hunting there, even if it was just rabbits.

' _Hello Chelsea_ ,' the telepathic voice almost made me jump up in the air.

Man I will never get used to that...

' _Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you._ " The Prof's voice rang through my head

"And you can probably tell what I'm thinking right now... can't you?" I projected my voice out to him.

" _Yes but I am not going any deeper than communication, so no need to worry about the invasion of privacy._ " He assured me. " _I know you are probably familiarizing yourself with the institute right now, but I would like to have a conversation about your training sessions and give you some lessons about the training equipment. Would you like to continue the conversation mentally or in person?"_

" _Uh, in person please. This is starting to give me a headache_." I responded, turning back to the back doors, and to the Prof's office. After coming back upstairs, he greeted me warmly as I entered the grand room covered in bookshelves. We must have talked for at least an hour, but covered important subjects that were essential if I were to help out with the students here. Charles told me the limits of training exercises, to never fully put students in harm's way, the basic levels of those I would teach, and what was expected of them and myself. For the next week I would be acting as an assistant of sorts to Storm, Cyclops, Jean, Hank, Logan, and Chuck himself, to get the jest of all the teaching stuff, and to learn about the numerous amounts of equipment I would be using. On top of that I would also participate in training with the older students and staff.

He also told me about how things in the institute worked like they would in an ordinary home, how everyone took turns with chores, cooking, and even chaperoning the younger kids if needed.

"I hope I didn't waste too much of your time." Charles said as he stopped the soft alarm of a small clock on his desk, reading 7:00 and signaled it was time for dinner.

I followed him out the door and to the elevator. "No, not all. I didn't have much to do anyways, plus I was wondering about some of that stuff." Pushing the button for the ground level, I turned to the older man with a smile. "And I'd rather be told now than in three weeks when I should know all of that."

"Yes, I'm sure you would."

"Oh by the way, I forgot to ask; can I have alcohol here? I know it's a school, but I mean come on! You have to be craving a drink by the end of the day." The doors slid open, and i almost walked out into what was a mini war field, with tiny bombs and fireworks alike. "Especially when you have to deal with stuff like that." I gestured.

Chuck heaved a sigh. "Yes, and I do. But if you do choose to bring such beverages home, I ask you to please keep them hidden from the students." A small blast went off at our feet, and he spoke up in a much more controlling voice. "Jubilee, Tabatha, I do hope you will be cleaning this up?"

The girl I had seen from last night with the short blond hair peeked out from behind one of the columns that were in the grand entrance. "Yeah, don't worry Proff we will!"

"How am I supposed to do that? Beer tastes disgusting when it's warm!" I hissed.

"Well then I guess you'll have to find a way." He started to roll past me, briefly stopping. "I would consult Logan about the situation. He is the most experienced when it comes to things like this."

"I honestly have no idea how I'll be able to do this without losing my-" I took a sniff and the delicious smell of meat and tomato wafted up my nose. "Holy shit is that meat sauce?!"

* * *

 **and theres chapter 4! i hope you guys liked it, and thanks to everyone who Favorited and followed the story. If you guys can give me some tips on writting accents like Rogue's and Kurt's that would be great because i had a lot of trouble with it, but go ahead and leave a review if you can and I will see you guys next time!**


	5. So you could be over 100?

Ch5

Dinner at the mansion is hectic to say the least. As I have realized, teenagers eat a LOT, I used to think that it was just me when I was that age, but no, all of them are like this. I have also been told that everyone takes turns cooking here, I am not looking forward to my turn considering you have to make enough for over sixteen people, not counting seconds that are always asked.

But the chaos of everyone chatting, grabbing for food, and shouting across the table isn't all bad, at least when you sit next to the instructor's because it is so much more quite. I rotated conversation with Storm, Hank, Charles, and Logan. I tried to talk a little with Jean and Scott too, but as much as the redhead tried to reach out, I was at blame for not extending myself to become friends, what could I say I'm stubborn when it comes to totally trusting telepaths. And Scott just was... Scott. He seemed nice enough, but there was a little bit of distaste in the way he talked to me. Not being one to dwell on like who likes me or not, I shrugged it off and continued talking to the adults.

"So Logan," I turned to the man with the claws. "I hear you're a guy that knows how to keep a drink around here?"

He looked slightly amused at my inquiry. "I take it you like to drink?"

"I think to survive in this messed up world of ours you have to." I grinned.

"Sure I can give ya tips for storing some around here." He took another bite of his dinner. "I'll take you out tomorrow to get what you need."

"You don't have to do that, I don't need some chaperone to take me into town."

"Do you know where anything is in Bavill?" He got me there, I knew where a motel, a bar, mall, and the docks are but besides that I clueless. He gave me an amused smirk before getting up with his plate. "I thought so. Meet me in the garage at 8 tomorrow."

As he walked away, I watched him retreat with fascination. I had definitely run into him before somewhere. Was it at a bar? The street? I guess I'd just have to recall it sooner or later. "Tomorrow? What, does he disappear during the night to do more crime fighting?" I said to no one in particular.

"No, but as I have told you Logan tends to enjoy being alone." Hank said, but then his brow knit into a small frown as he looked at me. "Chelsea, pardon me for asking but how old are you?"

"26, why?" It was an odd question, but understandable.

"Have you had any blood infusions lately? Or were ever given one that seemed to have abnormal side effects?"

I was a bit confused. "No I haven't, why do you ask?"

"While i was taking out the chip, I collected a blood sample from you, and I noticed something... strange about your DNA."

The professor looked over to us with intrigue. "Like what?"

"Well the first thing I noticed was that you had traces of reptile DNA in the blood, but I think that might just be part of your mutation."

I nodded. "That makes sense, I do turn into a giant lizard."

"The other is that it seemed... older than it should be" I raised an eyebrow at his statement.

"Older?"

He nodded. "Yes, at least by a few years from what you are. The actual way the cells are being replaced match your age, but the DNA itself is... strange. But it is hard to tell, I'll take a look at my equipment later just to make sure nothing went wrong there, I would like to get another sample from you though just to test."

"Sure I'll come down to the lab after dinner."

"It could be the fact that your DNA's x gene could trigger this, but I doubt it." Charles spoke up. "Most of the time mutants' age is prevented by their mutation, not aged further."

"Really, like who?" I asked.

"Well Logan is a good example. He is extremely old, my best guess is that he was born sometime in the late 1800's" Charles explained.

"I have to admit it that's impressive." I said "Do you think it's because of the healing factor?"

"Yes most definitely. There's a good chance it helps contribute to the slow aging, although there have been mutants that don't have it and are still youthful at older ages." Hank put in. The conversation about genetics and anti aging abilities continued for a good fifteen minutes before Hank and I went down to the lab to take another blood sample.

"Hopefully with this i'll be able to figure this little mystery out." Hank said, looking at the new vial of scarlet liquid. "Thank you for letting me take some more blood from you."

I pulled on my jacket. "No problem, just tell me the results when you figure it out." I stuck my hands into my pockets only to find they were empty. _'Damn it, I thought I left my wallet in here'_

"Hank would the garage still be open?"

"I think so, Logan is usually in there. why do you ask?" He started to write on few papers he was looking at.

"I think I left my wallet in the X van." I turned and walked towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow." After taking the elevator up, I made my way to the garage, where the door was already open and the lights were on.

Walking in I saw Logan working on his bike. I gave a knock in the door frame. "Hey."

He looked up. "Sup Dragon Breath?"

"I forgot my wallet in the van. Love the nickname by the way" I stated, walking over to said vehicle only to stop when the gruff man whistled sharply. I turned around, suddenly catching a small brown piece of leather. "And you've already gotten it out for me."

"I figured you'd come back for it." He placed the tool he had been using on the workbench, and bent down moving a box out of the way to reveal a small fridge. "Want a somethin' to drink?"

"I'd love a beer." He tossed me bottle, grabbing one for himself and opening it with his claws. I popped the cap off mine and took a sip. "Do we really need to hide these?"

"Most of the kids probably wouldn't try stealing one, but Chuck just wants to take precautions." He said, his gruff voice adding a rumble to his words. "And luckily none of them have found my stashes yet."

"Yeah lucky you." I took another sip of my drink. "Hey I never got to properly thank you for last night, so thanks." I brought up my bottle in a cheersing motion, pointing it at him.

He looked at me and with a small smirk. "Well I couldn't let you get taken by them could I?" To be honest, I loved the way he said those words, with cockiness but also a true underlining of sincerity. There was a minute of silence before either of us spoke up again.

"What type of experiments did Hydra use you for?" He asked, his dark eyes seemingly holding me in their gaze.

"Mostly combat against other mutants, or at least those were the most clear. Others were the classic 'strap you down to a table and torture you' experiments, pretty sure they were to test our tolerance to different factors. To summarize they tried to create a living weapon, and we were used to choose abilities for it."

Logan heaved a sighed, taking a swig of beer. "Damn bastards haven't changed one bit."

I looked at him. "So you have had first hand experience with them?"

"Yeah, you could say that." He seemed like he didn't want to talk about his run in with them, so I dropped any questions I had.

"I'm just glad they didn't put us in a different project."

"Like what?"

"There were rumors that they had other mutants that they manipulate their genetics for breeding." The thought of it sent a bitter tart into my mouth. "I'd take hours of torture on a table over a forced pregnancy any day."

"You don't like kids, do you?" Logan asked.

I stared at him for a second before looking down at my bottle. "No, no I don't. I'm ok with the kids here though, I mean they're all teenagers, not little crying sacks of meat. Younger ones on the other hand, they are literally vegetables, they can't do anything for themselves!"

He chuckled at the strange comparison. His laugh was gravely and deep, just like his voice, and I'm not sure if it's just a weird kink I have or if most women find it attractive too, but deep voices just do it for me. I was tempted to try and flirt, but decided against it considering that if I ended up seducing him, word of it would be all over the school.

"Charles said that your ancient . Is that true?" He paused in the middle of his drink, bringing the bottle away from his lips, and his eyes reflected reserved thoughts.

"Yeah, I guess it is."

"What do you mean 'you guess'?"

He sighed and tapped his temple before taking another drink. "Memory loss."

"How far back does it go?" I asked.

"It's complicated. It's grey for the most part after a few years back, but I've got glimpses of World War Two in here."

I was surprised. "Really? That's quite a ways back. But you look good for a guy over 70." I smirked at him, which he returned, both of us taking another sip of beer.

-X-

Over the next week I was practically just an assistant, although I shouldn't complain, I mean it was better than being chased by Hydra, but still it wasn't thrilling. I went around being taught by the other instructors how to program a lot of the machinery such as the Danger Room and obstacle courses outside, and was shown what to rest the students on. I had also been put through training sessions, sometimes with the team, but mostly on my own. Apparently If you were a teacher here you did most of your training alone. But I did get a surprise this week.

I was about to go down to the danger room to watch a simulation that most of the x men were participating in, and went up to my room to put on the ratchet 'new recruit's" uniform, god I hate that thing! When I opened my door however, I noticed a little brown box sitting on my bed. Walking over to it, I picked it up. It wasn't heavy, or all that fancy looking either.

"I swear to god this better not be one of your tricks Bobby." I murmured to myself as I opened it. Not to say I didn't like the kid, he was as cocky as me sometimes, but he could get on your nerves really easily. I took off the lid and picked up the contents of the box, holding it up to see the full length of it.

It seemed to be a new uniform, so I gladly slipped it on instead of the usual black suit and yellow gloves, and damn did I look fine. It was a back body suit with a firmer material along my sides, starting from under my arms to my lower thigh, and along the shoulders, and it was quite form fitting. And to top it all off there were a pair of protective looking red boots that came up to my knees, a pair of red fingerless gloves and a belt with an X. I liked the thing, not only did I look good in it without it having to be overly sexualized, but it also seemed good for battle; the boots were comfortable, the suit was flexible, and I think it might be fire resistant (that would definitely come in handy with my powers).

I hurriedly ran down the stairs, taking the elevator down to the sub levels and to the danger room's spectator overhang. Wolverine already stood over the control panels, dressed in his more casual black suit today instead of the orange and black mask.

"You're late." He growled, not taking his eyes away from the numerous buttons and dials.

"Sorry I was admiring how good my ass looks." He turned around, and gave me a glance over.

"Well does it look good?" He said, countering my bantter.

I smirked walking over to him. "Are you actually responding to my sarcastic attempt at flirting?"

"Sarcasm yes, but it'll take a lot more than an outfit that shows that you actually have curves to ever get me to "flirt" with you." He said, turning back to the control panel.

"Oh how will I live if you don't though." I heard him chuckle at the over acted sentence, which made me smile. "Alright, what hell are you putting these poor kids through today?"

"Just a simple mission training." I looked down into the Danger Room, seeing the walls, floor, and ceiling flicker into a mountain like train. Many of the students started to run to a destination point that was chosen for them, press a button to end the simulation, but they had to dodge many offensive attacks by flying orbs that fired paintballs. Kurt was one to teleport many of the students up as far as he could, before being hit in the back by one of the colorful little balls. According to the session he would now have to be "rescued" by one of the other teammates.

"He was too easy with that action." I leaned over the panel to look at one of the screens hat showed the events below. "If he had payed more attention to his surroundings and his own safety he could have made it through instead of only looking out for his teammates."

Wolverine cocked an eyebrow at me from the chair he was leaning back in. "You're saying he should have been more self aware instead of looking out for his teammates?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. He is important for both offense and defense. If we were in a real fight a move like that could have cost him his life and possibly those of the other kids." I was distracted by watching my students, but I thought I saw him smirk out of the corner of my eye. Another hour passed and the the kids were finally done. Me and Logan went down to give them pointers, a.k.a telling them what they did wrong.

"Canonball you were too clumsy with the canon, Wolfsbane you were too skittish when it came to attacking, and Jubilee you can not use tiny fireworks to protect yourself, they do nothing!" I said firmly as the two of us walked on to the Danger room floor, where most of the kids were hunched over trying to catch their breath. "You guys need to know how to get out of a situation without using your powers, you can't always depend on them."

Scott walked over to us, drenched in sweat. "We are here to learn how to control our powers. We know how to fight with are wits, that's why we don't focus on just relying just on our own bodies."

I frowned at him, and slowly walked over. "Yes Scotty I understand that. But you need to focus on things like this." I growled. "I know that all of you are very skilled in all techniques, but you can never stop improving. One mess up could cost you your life."

"You practically already said that." He countered. I got what he was saying, but I wasn't a patient person, and personally hated going over the same stuff again and again, but I had to make an example.

"Alright. You can defend yourself without your powers, I get it." I slid my hand down to my waist, letting my fingers trace over a tiny controller, and then pressing it. A huge slate of metal fell from the ceiling, and Cyclopes automatically looked up and shot it to the other side of the room with his energy blast. "But you turn to them first."

"THat was about to crush us." He pointed to the piece of metal now across the room.

"No, it wouldn't have. It was attached to a retractable tube that would have stopped precisely three feet above your heads" I said to all the students. "Your would have had time to run out of the way, but instead you blasted it. Tell me, would that go unnoticed in public?" he let out a sigh \, looking off to the side. "And it wasn't just cyclopes, a lot of you were ready to use your powers to get out of the situation, instead of just diving out of the way." I gave them a cocky smirk. "If you ask me, it's a subject you should work on."

There was a collective groan. "Don't worry I'm not going to make you guys do it right now. Frankly ya'll stink, so take a shower before I lose my ability to smell".

The team headed out through the metal doors, I was about to go out after them when Logan spoke up.

"Good job with that." He said, walking to match my steps. "Although leaving a team member behind would be brutal, it can be necessary."

"You don't think I know that?"

He chuckled. "And you were right about them using their powers. They do survival training every year and they still rely on them too much." He gave me a smirk. "You think you can handle them all by yourself?"

I grinned, flashing my fangs. "Please Wlovie, they're kids, I could handle anything they throw at me."


	6. A Cajun & Russian walk into a bar

CH5

My own first training lesson was pretty good, except for the fact that there was constant whining about it not being fair. It was a simple obstacle course outside, the only objective of it was to finish without using your powers. Charles said that although the students are sent here to learn how to control their abilities, it isn't bad to have some extra work so that they would know how to solve a situation if in public. Apparently though this was too difficult for the kids.

"This was so stupid, how are we supposed to get out of a ten foot hole!"

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I told you before Bobby, this is meant to make you think. Seek out other options besides relying on your mutations. Come on guys, your the X Men, you have more training than most cage wrestlers ever will in their lifetime."

"What does that even have to do with anything!" I just ignored him, and looked at the others.

"As I said this, exercise was meant to make you think. Wolfsbane, good job with stopping when caught in a trap, letting yourself figure a way to get out. Berserker and Cannonball, great team work with getting Jubilee down from that net." The teens that I complimented smiled. "Remember guys this isn't all about speed, it's about accuracy."

"You had metal blades flying at us! And you expect us to take our time?!"

"And if I hear one more complaint I will make you run the course again while also being chased by flames at 2,900° fahrenheit." I turned looking at the whining popsicle. "I'm I understood?"

"Whatever…" Iceman said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

His attitude was getting on my last nerve. At his age I was fighting to stay alive... and although at the moment he was too, crying like a baby did not gain any sympathy from me. "Alright, smart ass, for that comment I have another exercise for you." The teen's eyes widened, and everybody stepped back as I walked over to him. "You and me, hand to hand combat. And since you think that it's so useless to fight without your powers, you can go ahead and use all the ice you want. And to keep you from dying, I won't change forms." I gave him a smirk. "Kay?"

"Piece of cake." He mocked.

"Dude she took down Wolverine in her first fight." Racer to pointed out. "I wouldn't be so sure."

Bobby's face paled when he brought that up, giving a nervousness laugh. "Oh yeah..right."

The rest of the kids stepped out, unpurposely making a ring around us.

Iceman let his body become frosty, covered in ice and sent his first spray of solid water towards my feet. I jumped backwards narrowly missing the icy ground, only to get a burst of cold hit my back, luckily he missed and the back of my uniform was only covered in a thin layer of frost. I bounded over to him in a single leap and kicked his legs out from under him. He hit the ground with a grunt, ice automatically shooting out from his hands, which hit me in the shoulder, the force sending me back. I quickly recovered as did he, but because of the large block on my shoulder, I couldn't move my right arm.

"Nice hit." I growled as he pushed himself up. Turning my head, I shot a flame at my shoulder and the ice quickly melted.

"Hey I thought you said you weren't going to use your powers!" Bobby accused.

I smirked. "No, I said I wouldn't change shape." He stepped back at the realization . "Loop holes."

With that I sent a billowing pillar of fire at him, he barely managed to deflect the flames with a shield of ice that immediately turned to water. I charged at him, and sent a open fisted blow to his chest, I aimed again but he blocked my forearm with his own and slammed me in the ribcage with his other arm, luckily the firmer red part of my uniform where he hit gave some protection. Quickly I grabbed his wrist, flinging him in a circle and sent him flying a few feet, frost spreading across the grass he hit. I leaped over to him, landing with my feet on either side of him, grabbing both of his arms behind his back.

I leaned down to his ear, letting a little bit of fire grow in my throat. "Barely used my powers." I said, heat flowing out of my mouth. He groaned.

I got off him, offering a hand as he turned over to pull him up. "Remember, it's about accuracy not speed." I turned to the rest of the team. "Class dismissed. Now hit the showers before you ruin my sense of smell."

The group of kids went off towards the mansion, chatting and talking, a few teasing Bobby. I smirked as I thought of how lucky they were. To have a place that could teach you to control your mutation and how to defend yourself against a world that was less than pleased about your existence, I would have killed for it when I was their age.

"Not too bad." I turned seeing Logan. "Thought you would'a done a lot worse."

"Thanks for the reasurement." I chidded. "How long were you watching?"

"Long enough, was coming back from town n' though I should see how you were handling them." He pulled a small packet out of his jacket, and rolled out a small brown cylinder. "Mind lighting this for me?"

I sighed. "You know those things ruin your health?" I grabbed the cigar anyways, and blew a small flame onto the end.

"And you know I don't get health problems." He said coolly, taking back the tobacco roll, and leaned his back against a tree.

"Why do you even inhale that stuff anyways? I thought you had an 'extraordinary' sense of smell, doesn't it bother you?"

He puffed out a cloud of smoke. "Nope." I raised an eyebrow at him, honestly his nose was at least five times as good as mine when I was in human form, and I had a pretty good sense of smell. He gently rattled the box. "Take it you don't want one?"

I shook my head. "I'm good, my lungs are already filled with their own smoke. I'll see ya later." I said as I walked back towards the mansion. It was warm enough out, even though it was early evening and I sure could use a drink. When I got to my room I opened up my mini fridge I kept in the door of my dresser.

"..son of a bitch.." Empty. I hadn't been out to a bar since I've arrived here, so I figured might as well go out for a night. I stripped out of my uniform, putting on my usual jeans, boots, and leather jacket. I was on my way to the garage when I stopped, turning back to the training grounds. Logan was still out there when I came over from the rout I was going to take to the garage.

"Back so soon?" He said with sarcasm, not even looking to know it was me.

"You want to go get a drink? My stock ran out and I could go for one."

"Sure." He grumbled taking one last puff of his cigar as we entered the garage before throwing it in an ashtray on his workbench. I took two steps towards his bike before he let out a low growl.

"Ain't taking that one."

"Why not?" I said with an over exaggerated pout.

"Because it's mine."

"Uh yeah, I get that. You let me ride it once, so why not now?"

"Because I said so Dragon-Breath." He twirled his keys as he walked over to an old jeep. "Now do you want a beer or do you want to stay babysitting?"

I rolled my eyes with a small growl before jumping in the passenger's side. We drove into town and pulled up infront of the same bar of where we met.

"Are you kidding me?" I said unimpressed. "When I was in here last time I ran out without paying my bill, damaged property, and was chased out by guys with guns. Don't you think that's going to raise some suspicion?"

"I got it covered, your fine." He jumped out of his side, waiting on the sidewalk for me to do the same. Once inside we sat at the bar, this time an older guy was there polishing up the glasses.

"Logan, how'r ya buddy!" He gave a me a quick lookover. "This you'r new girl?"

"Nah Houg, just a friend." He gave a sideways nod to the man tending the bar."Hogan runs the place."

"Nice to meet you, Hogan. Names Chelsea." He gave my hand a shake.

"Please, call me Houg. Any friend of Logan get's higher status here. The guys practically half our income. On that note what can I get you guys tonight?"

"Regular whiskey for me," Logan said as we sat down. "And you want…?"

"I'll have a beer." Houg poured our drinks, and chatted with us for a while before walking into the storage room in the back to take care of something.

"So tell me," I said. "How exactly did you manage to clear up what happened with Hydra's boys here?"

Logan chuckled, taking A sip from his drink. "That's only for me to know."

The small bell over the door suddenly rang, signaling the arrival of someone new.

I turned around when I heard Logan mumble a "dammit". It was two guys, both were quite tall, but one was practically a giant, in height and physique. His head (looking tiny on his massive shoulders) was topped with short black hair, and his square face held a grim expression. The other was dressed in a trench coat, and although handsome, his most prominent feature was his eyes. Scarlet irises in pools of black, that held a cheeky glint to them.

"Logan, mon ami!" The shorter man called out in an extreme southern accent as him and his companion walked over to us. "How've you been?"

"I was fine before you walked in with your big mouth, gumbo." The feral man coldly said, taking another drink.

"Aww don' be like that Wolvie, is that anyway to treat your teammates?" This caught my attention, if they were X Men, how come i had never met them? The cajun looked over to me, as if just noticing my presence. "Who's ya friend? We left you for two weeks and you dive into pick up our game?"

"You never told me you had such the reputation as a ladies man Logan." I sarcastically remarked

"Don' worry cher, the hunters are here to preserve da game." The cajun took my hand in a very gentlemanly manner, in the classic 'kiss on the hand' move. "Tis a pleasure."

I pulled my arm back. "Yeah, as your new team mate I should inform you I'm not much of a lady. Don't enjoy my hands being smooched by strangers."

"New team mate , eh?" He chuckled. "Well then I betta' introduce myself. Names Remy Labeau."

"Chelsea, Chelsea Marks...Labeau… why does that sound familiar?" I mumbled before the realization struck me. "Weren't you the guy in New Orleans that lead the police on a wild goose chase after causing some explosion at a casino?"

"Oh so you were in the south a few summers back?" He said with amusement. "Glad my name got around." He signaled to the large man behind him. 'Dis is Piotr Rasputin, also goes by Colossus, 'nother member to da team."

"Well if we're introducing our code names also, you can call me Dragoness."

"Shape shifter." Logan numbly said, answering their unspoken question. "Big Boy turns into metal, and Gumbo blows stuff up."

"And 'Gumbos' a masta' thief. by the way Logan, you gotta start hiding your stash better, you making it too easy for ol' Remmy." He said with amusement.

"I swear next time I find ya took one of my drinks, it's going to be a lot more than a pack of cards you loose."

I chuckled. "A bit of a thief, interesting."

"Nobody is a betta thief den Remmy." He proudly said.

"Careful you might be his next target." Piotr warned. His voice had a russian accent, and even though it was in a joking tone there seemed to be a real warning to it.

"I'll keep that in mind". We stayed at the bar for another hour before heading back to the mansion, we had a 6 am training session in the morning and I preferred not to be zombie when that happened .

For my first impression of the two they didn't seem too bad. Although cocky, Remy was at least entertaining to listen to. And Piotr, although not saying much, seemed like a relatively nice guy.

They had their own car that sped past us while driving. I could hear Logan mumble something along the lines of "fucking show offs" before he pumped up the gas to get ahead of them.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at them. "Men." I said to myself. They always had to prove who was in charge.

After pulling into the grounds, we parked the vehicles in the garage and headed inside. The TV was on in the den, signaling someone was up, and after walking in to throw my jacket on the couch I could see Rogue, Kitty, and Scott sitting around watching a movie.

"Hey Chelsea, how was your date with Logan?" Kitty jokingly said.

"Oh it was fantastic, we were able to sneak in a quicky in a crappy motel." I sarcastically countered.

She was about to open her mouth to say something when she caught sight of our companions. "Piotr!" She exclaimed, shooting off the couch and jumping on the big man with a hug.

"Hello Katya." He gently wrapped one of his massive arms around her with a smile.

"Aww Kitty, you didn't tell me that you Muscle Man here were together." I joked.

"Wh-what?! No! We're just friends." She defended, although a bright red blush spread over her face.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure kiddo."

Rogue got up. "Wait does that mean.."

"Hello cher." Gambit smugly said walking over to her. "Ya miss Remy?"

"God dammit." She mumbled flopping back down on the couch.

"Aw, what? Not going to greet my homecoming with a kiss?" He leaned over her, his brown hair flopping down into his face.

"Do you want meh to send you into a coma?" She retorted.

"So how did the mission go?" Scott said, propping himself up on the back of the couch.

Remy held up a small usb chip. "All my missions go well."

I looked at the small device. "What was the mission?"

"Ever heard of the MRD?" He said, turning toward me.

I nodded. "The mutant hunters hired by the government to "protect" the public. Yeah I've heard of them. Ran into them twice and got shot actually."

His red irises sparked with amusement. "Well the prof asked us if we could get some information from them. Confidential files on how d'er able ta track us down, wants to know how ta keep 'em from catching mutants and locking us up in cells."

"Well sounds like he's got a lot more in mind than just running a school." I mocked. "Then again he got a bunch of kids to save the world."

"Actually that was mostly Logan and Scott leading us into battle." Kitty piped in. "When the Professor was turned into one of Apocalypse's horsemen along with Storm, they had to step up as leaders for us."

"Well at least you didn't get anybody killed, Scotty." I turned to him with a smirk. "The few times I've been in the danger room with you, I thought you were a bit too much of a control freak. Guess it can actually pay off on the battlefield though, huh?"

"Uh..thanks?" His eyebrows lifted in confusion over his glasses.

I turned back to the cujane. "So anything else besides info on the hard drive?"

"Considering he wasn't supposed to get anything except info, there shouldn't be." Logan said as he walked in with a beer in hand.

I raised an eyebrow "Really? We were just at a bar and you open up another can after gulping down two pitchers by yourself."

He shrugged. "I don't get a buzz like you."

"Of course not." I ran my hand through my hair closing my eyes momentarily. "I'm gonna head up for some sleep. You three should think about doing it soon too, you've got an early training session with tough guy over there tomorrow." I said to the three students on the couch before turning to Remy and Piotr. "You guys running it with us?"

"Can't miss it when he's in charge." Piotr jabbed his thumb toward Logan, earning a snicker from the others and a eye roll from the man of subject.

I gave the tall guy an amused smirk before leaving the den for the stairs.

The nightmares started as soon as I lost consciousness.

I layed on a table, the cold metal sending freezing sparks up my bare back. I was barely covered, only a slim tube of cloth around my breasts and spandex shorts. Blinding white lights hovered over me, pulsing a headache with their bleach tone.

Cold. That's what I felt all over. The thermostat never went past sixty degrees in this god damn dungeon.

"That was quite a stunt you pulled in the exercise today, my dear." And then there was him. The wretched surroundings had nothing in comparison to the monster that hovered above me, his grey eyes like oily coins, glistened with enjoyment as he tapped a syringe. "But we have talked about this: no attacking the staff."

I let out a growl, baring my teeth as he grabbed my hair by the roots, forcing my head back. "Then again, you never do as you're told." His frigid hands traced down my cheek to my neck, grasping it in a choking grip as he pulled close to my face. The hot breath hit me with the scent of awful bodily smells mixed with wine. "When will we ever break you?" I grunted as the needle was plunged into my neck. A bleak sensation started to run through my body as the substance was transported through my blood.

"At least with these tests we have you controlled." He fiddled with a brace that hung above the table. Rows and rows of tiny needles lined it, like a torturous acupuncture contraption. "So let's try less restraint this time. After all the more you struggle… the more pain you'll endure." The brace was forced over by body, the slivers of metal plunged into what felt like every centimeter of my bare skin. The two injections started to mix together in my veins, the pain unbarable. I couldn't contain the screams of agony as what felt like acid raged under my skin.

X

I woke up with a start, whipping my head from side to side checking my surroundings. I rubbed my hand on the side of my neck and arms as I tried to calm my breathing.

"Just a dream… you're safe.." I told bed was a mess, the sheets were tussled all over the place, half of them were on the ground. Not to mention what I had done to my bed head. The side of the frame has scratch marks the size and width of fingers, meaning I must have started to shift in my sleep again.

"Ugh." I moaned as I rubbed my head trying to remove the memories that were fresh in my mind. The clock read 4:30, meaning I had an hour and a half before I needed to start training. But that was what I needed most right now, a rush adrenaline and something to get my mind off those memories.

Pulling on my uniform I headed down the danger room. Setting up a simple program designed to test agility and strength, the minutes passed by in a blur.

The course was a maze of different leveled blocks, ranging from 12 feet tall to actually going into the ground. I started running and jumping over them as programmed guns started firing shots.

The first canyon opened up while I was in mid air over a jump, the terrain completely giving way into blackness. Opening up my wings at the last minute I rolled across the ground before jumping up to run again. I could feel the heat from the shots being fired only feet behind me as I ended up in the lower levels of the labyrinth, suddenly as I turned a corner one of the guns pulled out from the corner I was about to turn. Sliding to a slower pace I turned my arms into their scaly forms and with the extra muscle strength, tore the machine from the wall and flung it behind me causing a small explosion.

I just kept running, it was an almost natural state for me, it helped clear my mind and put me at ease, but the constant shifting floor below me kept me focused. And the destruction of the drones and and guns firing at me got my aggression to rise. A strange meditation but it worked.

I was about take a leap from from one raised block to another over a large trench, then suddenly the whole terrain leveled out. I stumbled to the ground, cursing as I fell.

"Son of a bitch!" I roared as I felt my ankle twist under me, stprained in the process.

"Wouldn't know, can't remember her." Logan's gravelly voice said over the sound system. "What ya do'in in here anyways Scales?"

I wrapped my hands around my ankle, pressing the muscle and bone back into place. "What does it look like Wolf Man? I was doing a training exercise until the ground fell out from under me."

I heard him chuckle. "Come on up to the observation deck, I need to program the simulation before the kids get down here." I got up, pressing my foot into the ground, moving it in a twisting motion to make sure it had healed. With a leap I unfurled my wings and with a few beats was level with the observation room.

"I ain't taking the stares." I firmly proclaimed. The stocky man rolled his eye and opened up the emergency window, allowing me to crawl in.

"Seriously, what you doing down here so early? Last I checked you literally can hibernate."

I chuckled at the comment. Last Sunday I spent most of the day asleep, Kitty actually had to phase through my door to make sure I wasn't dead or anything. "Oh don't worry, I can. I just had to make sure that you knew what a real training session looked like when you got here."

He smirked at the remark before turning to the control panel. "Don't test your luck. If you want a real challenge ya can do one of my solo training programs, and believe me it's a lot more complicated than just jumping over some hills and dodging drones."

"Mmhhmm, tell me when it's actually testing my skills." I noticed two mugs placed by him on the panel, the scent of coffee wafting from the steaming contents. "One of those for me?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Walked in earlier and thought I might as well get some while I waited for you to finish up. Decided to bring some down for ya considering it's hell to get into the kitchen after the living stomachs with meat around them wake up."

I took one of the cups, sipping it. "Thanks."

"What were you doing in here so early when you're going to be doing a team session anyways?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Nightmares, couldn't sleep." We sat in silence for a few minutes as he continued to press buttons and turn knobs to finish up the program, the only sound was the buzz of machinery in the danger room as some mechanisms were tested out.

"How do you stay so comedic?" He suddenly asked. "After what you've been through. Captured by Hydra, kept in their labs. I know what it does to people."

"Yeah, how?"

"How often do you see people with metal bones?" He snarled.

I lifted a brow "You were a test subject?"

He nodded. "Used by an organization called Weapon X. Essentially they're the same as Hydra when you get down to their basic purpose. Only reason their not considered terrorists is because they aren't foreign."

"You went through the same kind of hell I did. You've turned out just as sarcastic as I have, except you can't always take a joke." I pointed

He shook his head. "You're so much younger, I've seen what the effects of living like that can do to someone at such an early age. It ain't pretty."

"I had already been having a tough life for a while when they captured me. I was only fifteen, living on the streets, the only way I was able to eat was to steal wallets and purses. Even then I would sometimes end up starving." I sighed. "When you have a grey outlook, you expect the worse."

He huffed. "Tell me about it."

"It doesn't bother you that much." I pointed out.

"I've been living with what's left of those memories for years, I've gotten used to it." He replied.

I looked solemnly down at the mug between my hands. "Do you ever… get flash backs?"

He took a sip of his coffee. "All the time. Take it your nightmares were actually some of those?"

"Yeah...I'm just so...sick and tired of them" I snarled. "I'm free, I'm out of their reach, I'm safe. So why do those god damn thoughts always have to come back!"

"Instinct." Logan said simply. "It's there to remind you what to avoid and how to survive. It defends your weaknesses. It's there to protect you"

I scoffed. "Well if you put it that way, I guess the sarcasm is instinct… It protects the past."

* * *

 **Hey to everyone who's reading this story! I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated this story, I've been really busy with school and tests and finals and the rest of hell. But I hoped you liked the chapter, once again sorry for the horrible writing of accents. Also I had a much better ending to the conversation with Chels and Logan, but it's really late here and I'm tired so I guess this cringe worthy close up will have to do until I can update it. Please leave a review or feedback, and happy holidays! :)**


	7. A goth stripper hits my car

I was thrown back by a mass of metal, letting out a string of curse words as I hit the desolated concrete.

"Son of a bitch!" I roared, pushing myself up. "Hey Lasers, you guys done yet?"

"No, just hold it off for a little bit longer." Scott's voice said over my ear piece.

I growled in annoyance. "Fine but I need Shadowcat over here now!" No more than two seconds later there was a poof! And Kurt and her appeared in a cloud of grey smoke. "Blue, go back to A team as defensive line." I ordered and he was gone.

"What do you need me to do?" Kitty asked running over to me. I was about to answer but a huge blast of electricity was shot at us, grabbing the younger girl to alert her, I jumped to the side, and with her phasing we were spared electrocution.

"Phase the lower half into the ground, it keeps spinning and we can't disable it." We were currently fighting, not one, but three robots in a very badly damaged city. They sort of looked like spinning tops, except with spinning blades in the torso, legs that were big enough to crush you, and giant guns in the arms.

"I can get you there without being hit, but you'll have to run as soon as you get it into the concrete, understand?" She nodded. Quickly shifting I picked her up in one of my claws and flew straight at the robots again. Cannonball, and Wolfsbane were currently trying to take one down, while Colossus took on another. Flying at the third one we narrowly dodged a blast of energy. Dropping kitty on the ground, I flew around the head some more to distract it while she sunk it into the ground. When she did, she retreated allowing me a perfect shot to blasted a pillar of fire at the mechanical beast, and due to at least one of its defensive arms being sunk into the ground as well, it was only able to shoot one electrical blast at a time, taking a while to reload. Finally after keeping the flames up for a little longer, the robot was smelted to a glob of metal.

"Cannonball, destroy this before it explodes." I yelled as I ran to the next one that he and Wolfsbane were trying to distract. As he shot past me to detonate the pile of metal behind me, Kitty had already reached the other robot and with Wolfsbane distracting it was able to phase it into the ground.

"Move!" I roared as they took for cover as I pelted the large machine with blasts of burning fire. Just as I had finished a hunk of metal hit me in the shoulders sending me to the ground as the remains of the second robot started to topple. I rolled out of the way just as it hit the ground, if I hadn't I would have been crushed for sure.

Glaring behind me, a sheepish Sam gave me an apologetic look. "Sorry, I should have warned you about the rubble."

"You think?"

Colossus had the third one almost under control, but was having trouble destroying the spinning blades that guarded the middle.

"Kitty get on, you two disorient it as much as you can." I ordered, shifting again to my other form, allowing kitty to get on my spiked back. The other two ran at it, Rhane barking and Sam shooting past it in too many directions to count, confusing its single remaining electric gun (the other Piotr had pulled off). The large Russian was doing some serious damage to the thick legs, and had almost practically smashed them in.

Soaring above our little battle, Kitty must have gotten my idea. As soon as I got as close as I could to the machine, she jumped off my back, phasing through the middle and making it short circuit.

"Alright!" The little brunette fistpumped the air with pride, giving a high five to Rhane.

"Is that all?" Piotr asked, turning his metallic exterior back to skin.

"Here, yes, but we need to regroup with the rest of the teams. Wonder boy Scotty and A team are working to shut off the radio signals that power these and the rest of the mechanics." I explained.

"Could you fly us over there?" Kitty asked, walking up to our small circle of five.

I would probably have to get used to that question. being large enough to hold at least three people on my back as a dragon, and another two in my claws I wouldn't be surprised if I was used as some type of carrier in battle. "As long as big boy here doesn't turn to steel." I said giving a nod to Colossus.

Suddenly there was a sound of an explosion, not too far away, with enough force to make the ground shake.

"Uhhh… guys what was that?" Sam started to back up as our circle condensed. All of a sudden one of the large buildings to our left started to topple with another explosion of purple light, debris, dust, and pieces of glass falling straight toward us. I felt the strange sensation of my body loose it's density as Kitty grabbed my hand along with Rahane's, who reached out for Sam, and Colossus grabbing onto him.

Just as we were about to be hit, a mechanical voice buzzed through my earpiece.

"Mission completed."

The debre stopped falling, suspended in the air for a moment before it flickered away. Looking up, I saw the other teams spread out through the danger room. Scott, Jean, Rogue, Kurt, Jubilee, and Sunspot stood near a control panel in the center of the room. Storm and her students were surrounded by some spidery looking things, and Logan, Gambit, Boom Boom, and Ray stood a few meters to our left.

I growled when it clicked that the cajun was the one to set off the explosion.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" I demanded as I trudged over to him before Logan would rip him apart. "If we were in a real battle a move like that could have gotten us, and a hundred civilians killed."

"It's a simulation it's not like anybody actually would get hurt." He defended.

"I'm not too sure about that." I growled lifting him up by his collar.

"That's enough, both of you!" Storm said pushing me off him. "Luckily this is just a training exercise to improve working as a team. Gambit I understand that you are new to the X Men, but you must realize we are not like the Acolytes. We constantly have to look out for each other, especially since there are children amongst us." She turned to me with a scowl. "And as a team leader I expect you to be giving criticism, not plain insults next time."

"I am giving him criticism, he should know to watch how his actions can affect his surroundings." I growled glaring at his red eyes.

"Chels is right though," I heard Logan say from behind me in a more than annoyed tone. "Tin Man didn't seem to cause too much trouble. So I don't understand why you think you should be able to disobey orders and cause mass destruction, Gumbo. Especially MY orders."

The brunette gave a shrug. "Alrigh, alrigh, I get it. Just don' see what the problem is when we're jus' practicing."

"Because if you don't keep an eye out during practice you won't know what to look out for in a real fight." I growled

He glared at my snid remark. "Cher, I've been in plenty of fights. Just because you're on of the oldest people here doesn't mean you have the most experience, and doesn't give ya the right to boss those who know what they're doing around."

I frowned at him. "I'm sorry, are you judging my experience? Because last time I checked YOU caused a whole building to topple over because you weren't thinking!" I growled. "And to let you know I have been in a situation where that happened, and what happened after the collapse wasn't pretty."

"As much as I enjoy hearing this disputed, we actually need to focus on other matters besides this mishap." Beast said. "Although a mistake like this could be lethal in a real battle, Gambit is right; it was just practice which we are here to correct." He turned to me. "And text time please control your temper, understood."

I contained a sigh of aggravation. "Understood."

He gave us a nod before turning to the rest of the team to give pointers and critiques with the rest of the instructors.

-D-X-E-

"You said that you had been in a situation where a building collapsed," Jamie said as he ran up to me. Currently I was walking down to the hall to elevator from the locker rooms when he caught up to me. "What did you mean by that?"

"What do you think squirt?" I responded as I pressed the elevator button. "I was in a fight when a building collapsed near by."

"How near?"

I gave him a glance with a half hearted laugh. "Right under the roof."

His mouth gaped open. "How'd you survive that? Is your healing power really that strong?"

"Nah, kiddo I would have been crushed if I didn't escape." His mouth opened to ask another question. "If your gonna ask how, I jumped out a window."

He gave me a smile before walking into the elevator as the doors opened. "You know, you seem pretty cool for a teacher."

I raised a eyebrow at him. "Uh, thanks I guess."

"Not that the other teachers here aren't, but you know." He shrugged. "Personally I like Beast the best, he usually makes training into some sort of game. Jean and Storm are fine but they just act like regular teachers from school. Scott is a bit too serious though."

"What about Logan?" I asked.

"He's practically a drill sergeant! It's like going through boot camp with him, sometimes worse!" He puffed out his chest and tried to do his best impression of the feral mutant. "You can't back out in the real world bub, you gotta fight your way out."

I chuckled at his little gag. "Well he is right. that sounds like something I would say too."

"Yeah, but you crack jokes in training." He said leaning up against the wall as we passed the second underground level. "You also said that when the building collapsed it wasn't pretty, why's that?"

"The air was filled with dust, there were huge piles of cement and debris, it definitely didn't look like Hawaii."  
He glanced up at me "did anybody die?"

I was a bit shocked at the question. "... Yes. But who doesn't concern you." The elevator doors opened to the ground level, allowing us to part ways. Unfortunately he started following me.

"Did you know them?"

"Don't you have some homework to do or something?" I growled.

"No. Well, yeah actually I do but it's just history. I just want to know more-"

"More about what?" I asked turning around to face him. "If it's about collapsing buildings I can summarize it for you. It's loud, it's dusty, and dangerous. If anybody were to be stuck in one they would die, like I said. And yes, I did know them." He opened his mouth to ask yet another question. "And that's all I'm sharing on dangerous situations today."

I walked into the kitchen to get something to eat, leaving Jamie out in the foyer. I found the professor there talking with storm.

"Ah Chelsea, just the person I wanted to see." He said as i opened up the fridge.

"What'd you need Charley?" I asked as I closed the fridge once I found a package of sliced ham

"Do you have any plans for the day?"

I shook my head. "Unless you count finishing this meat off a plan, no. Why? Need me to do run an arrend?"

"Yes actually I was wondering if you could take Jamie to the dentist." He answered rolling over to me.

"Short, little Jamie?" He nodded. This would be a car ride full of questions and no escape. "Sure, no problem." I sighed "Hey tiny get your homework, we're gonna go get your teeth cleaned!" I shouted as I turned to walk out.

….

"So when you breath fire, does it hurt your throat?"

"No" I answered

"What about your tongue?"

"No"

"Your teeth?"

"Kid I'm practically fireproof in my other form for a reason." I said with annoyance, my hands tightening on the steering wheel. "What's your fascination with dragons anyways?"

He shrugged. "I just think their cool."

"Let me guess, is it because of some nerd game like world of warcraft or something?" I gave him a glance.

"So what if it is?" He blushed.

I chuckled. "Hey it's fine,i don't blame you. Dragons are cool." I took a deep breath of the outside air as a gust of wind blew in from the open car windows. "Besides, they're like-"

I was cut off when a black object hit the hood of the van, making me swerve in shock, making the car spin a few times from the fast change in direction.

"Holy shit, what the hell was that?!" I turned around in my seat to try and see what hit us. "You ok kid?"

Jamie brought his head up from where he was lurched forward in his seat. "Yeah..uh..I think" he managed to say shakily.

Seeing that he wasn't injured I got out to find what hit us laying in the middle of the road. To my surprise it was a women, maybe around my age give or take a few years. Her black hair was strewn across the ground, and her outfit did not seem very keen for whatever she was doing. A black corset with black stockings and knee high boots, and also a cape.

Jamie ran up behind me. "Is she alive?"

"I don't know, but call 911." I tossed him my cell before turning to the wooded area on the side of the road where she was launched from.

"Hey, where are you going?" He called out.

"I'm going to go find what or who the hell threw a goth stripper at us!" I shouted over my shoulder as a ran between the trees.

Upon hearing crunching of leaves I stopped to see what it was, hiding behind a large oak. The man who walked passed me was huge, practically a giant, probably bigger than Colossus. Long hair framed his yellow cat like eyes. There was no doubt he was a mutant with is extreme size and pointed teeth and claws.

"Hey!" I yelled at him to keep him from reaching the road where Jamie was. He turned, snarling at me. "What gives you the right to toss girls in corsets, you Neanderthal."

He roared, like a literal big cat or something, charging at me at a speed that seemed impossible for his size. I jumped out of the way as his humungous hands tore a five inch furrow into the tree.

'Note to self,' I thought. 'Don't end up like that trunk.'

He lunged at me again and again, but his immense size gave him the disadvantage against my agility. As I ran away from him I grabbed onto a low branch Swinging myself up into a tree, and wasted no time climbing up to the taller branches. I took one look behind me, seeing this brute actually clawing his way up only inches below.

"Shit!" I yelled as he grabbed onto my boot, throwing me to the ground. I hit the ground and saw him jump down right in front of me.

"Didn't know she had back up." He growled in a deep voice. "But you don't even seem half as strong as that weakling was!" He lifted his clawed hand to strike down, but i blast led a searing amount of fire at him, making him back up and roar in pain. Quickly shifting, I charged at him and threw him a few yards away.

He quickly recovers from the shock of a dragon tossing him against a tree. He ran at me claws extended. But mine were the size of steak knives compared to his finger long ones. I tore my claws threw his Breastplate, sending him back a few steps. Spinning around i knocked him further with my tail. I launched myself over him, snagging my one of my claws on his coat as I climb further into the sky, wings flapping against the cold air. At about one hundred feet up I dropped him, just to give him a scare I caught him before he could hit the ground, maybe ten feet up before letting him go again. He hit the earth with a *thud*.

I placed one of my sets of claws around him, digging my talons into the dirt to keep him in place.

He roared at me like some savage caveman, I simply returned the favor a few time louder along with letting some sparks escape my throat.

"I'm impressed Chels." I shot my green eyes at Logan who stood a few feet away in his uniform, with Jamie standing behind him.

I gave a soft growl in response, turning back to my prisoner.

"Logan, get your bitch off me!" The man under me yelled. I let out another growl, baring my fangs inches above his face.

"Shut it fleabag!" Logan shouted back.

"Dragoness, go ahead and get off." Jean said coming through the trees. "I got him covered."

Reluctantly I did as she said. The wild man looked like he was about to attack again as he got up, yet he suddenly fell back to the ground. I gave a look to Jean, whose hands were on her temples, no doubt the cause for his black out.

"Why don't we just use you to knock all the bad guys out?" I sarcastically asked.

She rolled her eyes at me. "The more minds there are the harder it is. Besides it takes concentration."

Logan walked past us, lifting the feral mutant onto his shoulders. "Why the hell were you going head to head with Sabertooth?"

"Did you not see the chick on the road?" I asked.

"No, we saw her alright." Jean answered. "Jamie called us as soon as he could. We got here right after the ambulance came."

I gave a glance to the kid. "Well at least I can trust you with a cell phone. Thanks."

He shrugged. "No problem."

We walked back through the trees, finding the road within a few yards. Logan kept pace with me, surprising considering his extra load.

"So I guess this answers any questions about you taking on a strong opponent." He said.

"Thought that would have been answered with all the danger room training I did with you?" I smirked.

"Yeah well, it's always good to practice with an actual threat." He said. "And Victor here is a great punching bag. Believe me you'll be seeing a lot of him."

Before I could ask what he meant Jean stopped in front of us, glancing back with worry. "You guys should take a look at this."

On the road say the ambulance, but it took me a moment to see what she meant. Two paramedics laid on the ground, motionless, eyes glazed and open looking up with terrified expressions of fear. The women that had been there had vanished.

"What the..?" I looked to Jean, whose eyes shone with remorse.

"Their…"

"Dead" Logan finished. "Their blood ain't moving. Call the professor. Flea bag here has got some questions to answer."

X

I stood in front of a clear holding cell, Sabertooth stared at me and Logan through the other side, his yellow eyes radiating hate.

"So tell me exactly how you guys know eachother?" I asked Logan, who didn't take his eyes off the other man.

"We've got a history." He sternly said.

"He an ex boyfriend?" Both shot me a look. "What, just trying to get answers here." I defended

"The girl's got spunk, I'll give you that, runt." Sabertooth chuckled. "Surprised though, the women you usually pick up end up impaled after they sleep with you."

"Shut it!" Logan growled. "Or has your sense of smell started to deteriorate, old man." Sabertooth snarled in response.

"Besides, it would take a lot of alcohol to do that." I added. "Also Wolvi, you would need a shit load of toothpaste. It doesn't take an extraordinary sense of smell to know when you've been smoking those cuban cigars."

The metal doors behind slid open, letting the professor and another man with white hair in. The guy was dressed in what looked like red armor.

"What happened." The man said agitated.

"Listen, I had the women but thanks to the newest annoyance here, she escaped." Sabertooth said, jabbing a clawed thumb at me."

The older man turned as if just realizing I was there. "And she is?"

"Stronger than the fur ball over there." I mocked. "And I have to ask, why a purple cape and armor?"

He clenched his jaw. "You should really teach your recruits respect, Charles." He gave me another glance before turning back to the caged feral. "And you can call me Magneto."

"Is that supposed to sound intimidating?" I teased.

"Chelsea, please." Charles said. "Eric, who was this women?"

The silver haired man turned back to the professor. "You mean that fancy computer of yours hasn't told you yet Charles?" He said lifting an eyebrow. "It has come to my attention that there is a new band of mutants roaming the state of New York, along with appearances across the rest of the country and others. Wherever they go, certain...events conspire. From what I have learned the members are very powerful, both in powers and social position." He turned to look at all of us, dark eyes holding a warning. "They call themselves the Hellfire Club."

* * *

 **Hey everybody hoped you enjoyed the chapter! and sorry for all of those who I kept waiting for so long. Anyways if you want to leave a review please do and feel free to give me any tips on writing because boy do i need them.**


	8. Memories are a pain in the ass

"Hellfire? Well that's one way to make people remember your name." I mumbled to Logan.

"Erik, can you tell us what sort of "events" conspire when they are around?" Charles asked, leaning on his fingers placed under his chin.

"So far the only pattern I have come across are missing politicians or leaders of companies. the strange thing is they usually return within a few days, but with no recollection of the time that has passed." He placed his helmet under his arm. "Also the enrollment of high powered individual's children in a boarding school called the Massachusetts Academy. I have yet to inspect the place."

"Do you think the school is picking up young mutates?" Scott asked perplexed, the other kids had come in to see what the commotion was about. Apparently this Magneto guy doesn't exactly come by for friendly visits often.

"I gather so. It would aid them to have young mutants whose parents are powerful in the business and political world." Charles said. "Magnus, we can go through the school and deliver you whatever Intel we can. Although we've had our differences, I take it you would not enjoy yet another attack of hysteria. Especially with how things are in the public right now."

"I doubt any of us will." The old man said after a moment of silence. "I'm expecting you to not hide anything from me Charles."

The professor wheeled beside him as he started to leave. "Off course not."

"Hey! Aren't you forgetting something?" Sabertooth yelled, clawing marks into the glass of his cell to get his boss's attention.

Magneto sighed before giving Charles a glance, who in turn pressed a button on his chair. "Of course not Sabertooth." The front wall of the cell lifted, allowing him to walk out. I could hear a growl resonated from his throat as he passed Logan, who returned the animal like gesture. "I'm hoping to hear from you soon Charles. And I am also hoping you're using my old members to better you?"  
Charles gave him a smile. "If that's your way of asking how they're doing, you'll be glad to know both Gambit and Colossus are fitting in nicely." Magneto gave him a sour smile before walking out of the holding room with his accomplice. The professor turned to face us. "Now we at least have a name to follow."

"So when are we going to check out this Massachusetts Academy?" Scott asked.

"The sooner the better. If we can get one step ahead of their next move, if we can even find out when or what that will be, we can hopefully be prepared."

"What about tomorrow?" Jean suggested. "The rest of the team doesn't have school. You can take everyone along."

"No, that may raise suspicion." He waved it off. "I'd like to see this school for myself. Jean, Storm, you both make good advocates so I would like you to come along as well. And Logan," he turned to where him and I stood. "You and Chelsea should come in case we need back up."

We nodded. "Good call. I'll prep the Black Bird before we leave." He said.

In the back of my mind I couldn't help but think finally, something to make me useful.

-D-X-M-

Did I like flying? Yes. Did I like flying in planes as much as I did using my own wings? Not as much but when it comes to jets like these the line is pretty close.

"...Damn…" I said under my breath as i walked with Logan into the hanger. "I'm never going to get over the sight of this thing." I had seen the Black Bird when Kurt gave me the so called "exclusive tour", but it was just as magnificent seeing it the second time.

"Yep. It's one fine piece of equipment." Logan said as we climbed aboard. "And as long as none of the kids take it out for another joy ride, it should stay as good looking as it is now."

I lifted an eyebrow at the comment. "You're telling me that a teenager took this thing out for a fun night?"  
"A group of them actually." He grunted as he sat down in the pilot's seat and started flipping switches.

"Are they ones I know or did you murder them when they got back?"

He grinned at me. "Oh you know them. Jubilee, Sam, Raberto, Jamie and our favorite pain in the ass Bobby are lucky the prof was the one to punish them and not me. If I had my way they'd be trying to survive out in the wild to get a sense of responsibility."  
"Well I bet their grateful you're not in charge." I smirked at him.

"They better damn should be."

After a few more minutes of flipping switches and pressing buttons the prof wheeled up the ramp followed by Storm and Jean. After we took off the professor told them what they'd be looking for, Although I don't know why when he and jean could just probe any mind they wanted to. I looked out the window, watching the terrain glide underneath us. It surprisingly didn't take too long to reach Massachusetts. Upon landing in the local airport, Logan opened up the storage space underneath to let out the car the prof would be using to reach the academy.

"Remember, if we need you the place is on the eastern outskirts of town. It shouldn't be too hard to find considering it looks strikingly like the institute." Said Storm before getting into the drivers seat.

"Don't worry Ro, I think we can manage to find it." She gave us a smile before rolling up the windows and driving off.

We watched as they drove off through the gates and onto the main road. "So what now?" I asked.

"Now we wait for them to get back." Logan simply said before walking up the damp back into the jet. I followed him and to my surprise I found him waiting for me holding two bottles of beer with a proud smirk. "Want one?"

"Did you pack these just for me?" I sarcastically smirked as I took one of the bottles from him.

"Don't flatter yourself Chels." He chuckled, kicking back in one of the passenger seats.

I sat in the one opposite him. "How sneaky did you have to be to get these on board?"

"Not too much. I'd been in the hanger earlier to get the car inside the jet, figured I might pack a few considering Chuck would most likely want us to stay here."

"Wise man." I said. "Do you treat all your passengers with such luxury?"

"Considering most can't drink, no." We chuckled and kept talking. It was so easy to get along with him, we had quite a few of the same interests I guess, and we had the same sarcastic sense of humor. It had been about two hours since the proff left and we were still in out same seats, only difference now was a cooler between us and a few bottles resting on it while we played a game of poker.

"Alright I got one." I said placing down one of my cards. "Your you rather do Jean or Ororo?"

"You know you're asking me to choose between my coworker and one of my old students?" He said with a slight undertone of disgust.

"Your over 100 years old. If you're worried about age here… Boy do I have some bad news for you."

He let out a huff. "For the sake of NOT sounding like a pervert, I'm going to say Ro. But Red was a few years older, and I hadn't known her when she was younger, then maybe, MAYBE I might say her." I was about to make a joking remark but he put up his hand with a smirk. "My turn. Would you rather do Kurt or Scott?"

"I-You… That's even worse than the one with the two old politicians!" He laughed at my discomfort.

"Come on Chels, you made me choose."

"Fine if I had to I'd go with Scotty." He took a swig of my beer. "He's taller, older, and not covered in blue fur."

"What you don't like your guys hairy?" He joked, flashing another toothy grin.

I flirtatiously leaned across the cooler, reaching out to his arm. "Oh no I do. I just don't like them covered in fur. If I seem like the kinda gal that likes my men looking like a real man, well then you'd be right."

He pulled back in discomfort, making me roll back laughing. "Such a temptress I'm surprised you haven't tried to seduce one of the kids." He joked.

"As I said, I like my guys to be actual men."

He smirked at me, that god damn sarcastic, annoying, attractive smirk of his as he pulled in by my shirts neckline. "Well maybe I should tell you how I like my women." He said in a deep, husky tone.

I could feel a blush spread across my cheeks. "Okay, stop. Unless you want me to throw myself at you right now."

He let go with a chuckle, leaning back. "Would you really Chels?"

"If you put another seven of these in me, then i probably would be drunk enough to." I said holding up my current beer bottle.

"I'll keep that in mind." He smirked.

I sat back down, tapping the arm rest of my seat. "How much longer do you think they'll be?"

At some point I must have dozed off because I found myself back in my memories, back in the base.

I was in what looked like a metal bunker, there was nothing in it except a single body laying in front of me. The kid was probably 16, a year older than me at the time. His Blood covered him from multiple wounds, also drenching myself.

I was shaking, on the verge of tears as I felt one of my numerous cuts on my face start to heal.

"...what have you made me do…?" I whispered as i heard the metallic sweep of the exit door open behind me. "What did you make me do!"

I held back the sobs as HE placed a hand on my shoulder.

"We didn't make you do anything." That son of a bitch Rowner proudly said. "You did it all on your own. Your first kill… It was quite interesting to watch. You completely relied on only your primal instincts… Well as long as you keep this up I know who I'm putting my bets on during fights."

I looked up at him hot tears cleaning lines though the blood on my face. "Rowner, I- I can't do this."

"But you were a natural sweetness. You have a great concept of anatomy for someone who didn't make it past their freshman year of high school. You knew exactly where to remove the trachea r, if not with a bit of a mess." He said as he looked as some of the blood that had gotten onto his hands when he touched me. "But than again we don't need your fighting abilities for our project."

"YOU MADE ME InTo A MURDERER!" I lunged at him, only to have an electric shock make me fall to the ground.

Through squinted eyes I could see him shake his head with a sigh. "When will you learn? You can't attack staff members." Two sets of arms pushed me up, no doubt guards. "Take her back to her cell, I'll need her ready in two hours for another trial."

The scene shifted. I was in a steel room with nothing but a bench to lay on. But I was spread on my stomach against the cold floor.

"What'd they make you do this time?" The boy in the cell next to me asked through a small hole in the wall.

"The same as usual Marcus. Fight until one of us loses." I had never met home face to face. All I could tell about his physical structure was that he had gold eyes. Literal fourteen karat irises that I used to see as the only beauty in the hell hole i called my life.

"You seemed more shaken up than usual. Something else happened."

I rested my head on my arms as I watched the light that shone under my door. "Would it be considered murder if killed somebody while in my other form?"

"They made you what?!" I chuckled at his concern, the kid was one of the only beings in this place to show actual human reactions.

"Yeah. Guess they finally pushed me over the edge this time, but I couldn't help it. I just... snapped. I've had so much control until now I don't know what made me go so animalistic."

"Instinct? They probably used some type of factor to cause you to think about only perserving yourself."

"You're probably right." I said defeated. "How're you doing? Are they still pumping you with that suppressant?"

"The one that diminished my strength and tolerance back to a normal person's? Yeah"

I cracked a smile knowing he probably did something to piss the labs off. "What you do this time? Break more irreplaceable equipment?"

"More like accidentally breaking someone's personal 'irreplaceable equipment', if you get my drift."

"You're unbelievable."

"I tripped!" He defended. I let out a half hearted laugh.

"Yeah, and one day they'll let us out of solitary confinement."

His eyes crinkled, no doubt from a smile. "I'm glad you're okay."

I returned the smirk. "Same for you." Once again the scene changed, this time to one of the numerous rooms where the doctors performed surgeries. I was strapped to a table, and judging by my...grown assets I was probably around seventeen or maybe a year older.

I heaved a sigh as I tried to pick my head up from the steel table. "You're gonna need a lot more drugs to knock me out Rownr!" I said, the world spun slightly as the current anesthetics started to wear off.

"Would somebody please gag her." I heard the older man from somewhere above my head.

"What? Don't enjoy me chatting with you?" I cackled. Normally I wouldn't be so talkative but things change when you're high on gas. "You didn't act that way last night when you were feeling me up in my cell-"

I was cut of by his hand slamming over my mouth. "Shut up you vehement bitch!" He snarled, the scar I had caused a month earlier stretching across his nose. I bit down on his hand making him pull back.

"Common' I thought you were smart enough to wear something to protect those dainty fingers of yours." He forced a leather strap around my jaw, preventing me from talking.

"Your attitude has become increasingly rebellious lately my dear." He said as he picked up some type of tool. "I believe you should remember exactly the type of pain we can cause you."

'Good luck, you've made me numb already.' I thought rolling my eyes.

"Now, let's see if you can grow back a kidney and survive the procedure without painkillers." He growled, sticking the a scalpel into my skin.

* * *

"Chels, hey Chels wake up." Someone said as they shook my shoulder. My eyes snapped open from the contact, grabbing their hand. Logan standing over me, raising an eyebrow at the sudden defense. "I'm not that intimidating at first glance am I?" He cracked a smirk. "Prof is gonna be back soon, though it might be a good idea if he didn't see you sleeping on the job."

I rubbed my face, trying to get myself to regular energy. One of my hands drifted down to where a scar would be from the procedure if it weren't for my healing factor. "Hm, thanks for the heads up."

"Besides you were mumbling in you sleep. It started to get on my nerves." He turned back to the cockpit flipping a few switches. "You alright though?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Just… mild PTSD." I said as I got up and stretched. "A few memories."

"PTSD. You actually have that?"

I scoffed. "Most who survive the shit you and I went through do. Don't you get flashbacks?"

"Yeah, but that's all I call them. When you put a label on conditions like what we have, it just sounds like people are saying you have a malfunction."

"I'm just trying to use the right terms here." I said, sitting down with him in the co-pilot's seat.

"... Please don't tell me you're waiting for me to ask you about it." He said with a smirk as he swiveled his chair to me.

"Nah, I wouldn't subject you to anything dealing with feelings. God knows I wouldn't want to be." He gave a half hearted laugh. "You act like such a…"

"What?"

"Guy." He said. "I have never met- no that's not true. You just don't usually meet gals who are so unladylike like."

"Thanks, I think." I said confused. " I'm not sure if I should be flattered or insulted."

He shook his head. "Complement. You don't let emotions control your life."

"If you're saying most women do, I'd warn you to stay away from any matriarchal feminist groups." I scoffed.

"I'll take my chances." He grinned. So cocky and smug… I loved it.

"Well being the only girl in a household of guys helps diminish lady like qualities I guess."

He chuckled at the remark. "Ever think of going back?"

"Sometimes I guess. But it would probably be too much for my family to handle. Seeing their daughter who they no doubt thought was dead or kidnapped show up on their doorstep saying "hey mom and dad, I'm ok and going on 30 in a few years! And I can turn into a dragon!" Wouldn't exactly be a walk in the park."

"Hmph." he grunted with a smirk. I bit my lip, wondering if I should ask him what I had on my mind.

"Do you ever think of going back to get revenge on the people who did this to you?" I gestured to his body.

He took a quick look at himself. "Tried once, just to get some answers and possibly help with some outbursts that kept happening. It didn't necessarily end well. Half-Pint and the elf snuck aboard and got in the way." He paused for a moment. "I'm glad they did though. At the time I didn't really care about what happened to me, but after getting pretty badly injured they came through and kind made me realize there are certain things in life worth sticking around for." He gave me a glance. "If you're thinking about trying to get your revenge, I'm not one to tell you no. But Hydra is… well a hydra. It's massive, they'll crush you and you'll make no difference. So if you ask me it's not worth it." I set my jaw, stubbornly looking at him. How could he say that? So what if I never made a difference, I would give anything just to watch the doctors who tortured us burn.

He stared into my eyes, finally cracking a smile of.. What I think might have been pride. "But if you ever are going to go after them, take some back up, specifically someone who wants to see them suffer as much as you."

"Know anybody who might?"

"There's a guy or two I might." There was a buzz from his phone and after quickly screening it his eyes came back to look at me. "Chucks on his way back. We should probably clean up the bottles."

Once Charles, Storm and Jean got back and we loaded the car into the jet we took off.

"So what did you find out about the place?" I asked turning to Storm who sat across the aisle from me.

"Remarkably it is almost identical to the institute." She said. "Down to the layout of the building and everything."

"And mutant activity?"

"They hid it well, but that was present too." Jean said turning to face me. "The instructors and students both have powers. At the moment it doesn't seem like they are trying to increase their numbers drastically because they're only taking in kids from wealthy families. Hopefully that means they won't try to enforce any kind of attack."

"Did they know about your powers?" Logan asked, a slight tone of caution underlining it.

Charles clenched his jaw. "Yes they knew of mine." He sent a glance back toward Jean. And I could tell from the way he gazed, he was worried about her. His voice entered my head momentarily.

D-X-M

A raven haired women sat down in front of a well built man behind an oak desk.

"Seline, I asked you of one favor and yet you were somehow cause a commotion. How?" The man asked as he wrote something down on paper in front of him.

"Sebastian I told you if it weren't for the brute who attacked me I would have done fine." She defended, dark eyes gazing at he man. "I did what I had to do to survive. If it weren't for those paramedics I wouldn't have had enough energy to flee. I could have died."

"And apparently after you drained their life from their bodies you still didn't have enough energy to actually move the corpses!" His voice rose in anger. "Did you actually think nobody would notice something like that? No sign of struggle or distress, just a sudden stop of heart beat? And the fact you were so careless is even more of a disappointment considering we just had a visit from Charles Xavier. He was the whole reason I sent you after Senator Kelly, his school was the whole reason I sent you to that town, his prize pupil could possibly help us achieve our goals." He sneered into her face, pushing himself over his desk. There was a knock at the door and a young, very beautiful blond haired women stepped in, dressed in a pristine white dress and blazer.

"Is this a bad time my King?" she asked.

Sebastian sighed, beckoning her forward. "No Emma, come in."

Emma closed the door behind her walking up to the desk with elegance. "If you're worried about their knowledge of our courses, you have a right to be. Although subtle, Xavier did try prodding information, but he must have sensed my telepathy because he refrained quite quickly." She then flashed a smile at Sebastian. "On the bright side, the old man brought Ms. Grey with him."

Sebastian looked up with interest. "And?"

"And if we were to gain her trust and that of the institute, we might be able to execute your plan after all, Mr. Shaw. Even with her great mental strength she is also very open minded, very naive. I barely had to sneak into her subconscious." She placed her hand gently on Sebastian's shoulder. "If you let me, my lord, I might be able to infiltration the X Men and bring Ms. Grey to you."

Sebastian Shaw grinned. "What would I ever do without you Ms. Frost?"

* * *

 **Hey guys long time no see, sorry I was having a bit of writters block. But anyways I hoped you all enjoyed the chapter! As you can probably guess Emma Frost, Sabastian Shaw, and Seline are all owned by marvel and if you have any tips on writting their character or if I should include anything let me know. It might be a little while until I upload for this story again because I want to finish up CVH , but I will try to work on another chapter at the same time. In the mean time leave some reviews because I love hearing feedback**


	9. Ms Frost

Ch 9, Ms. Frost

It had been about a week since we had visited Massachusetts. Concern of the rival school, if you could call it a rival, had lowered over the past few days and everything had gone back to normal. Or as normal as a house of teenage mutants could be.

"Boom Booms protect your face!" I ordered as I saw her take a hit from Rogue. Currently I had the kids out in the yard sparring against each other, and it was going relatively well except for the occasional shot of electricity, fire, or extra Jamie caused by somebody getting too angry.

"I'm trying!" The blonde shot back at me, getting another hit from Rogue.

"Here, let me show you something." I said, walking up between the two. "If an attacker comes at your head, try doing this." I brought Rogue's fist close to my face. "As soon as you can, try to grab them. This will stop the attack and give you a chance to become offensive. Try pushing their forearm downward and to the side, this will hopefully also turn them around if done with enough momentum and leave their back vulnerable. Rogue, mind trying?" She followed what I said as I brought my arm up to hit her jaw, spinning me around before letting me. "See?

"Excellently done, and nice touch with the extra push."

"Thanks." She shrugged. "Figured you'd want your attacker as far away from ya as possible.

"You gotta' pick up on little stuff like that when you can't throw fireworks at everyone." She shot a glance to Tabitha.

"That brings me to what I had to say next. Booms, you gotta keep those little things under control. Save it for the danger room when we are doing power training, alright?"

She sighed. "Sure, whatever."

I ignored her attitude, walking onto the next pair which was Nightcrawler and Sunspot. As I walked up, Kurt wrapped his tail around Roberto's leg, making him fall.

"Not fair amigo." The brazilian boy started to switch to his solar form.

"Hey! No powers." I ordered.

"But he-"

"Used his tail, so what?" I said crossing my arms.

"It's part of his mutation!" He exclaimed. "I thought you said we can't use em', Marks."

"Its part of his mutation, but not his power." I pointed out. "I said you can only use your body to protect yourself, which he has."

"So why can't I use mine? Technically when I absorb solar energy all i'm doing is using my body."

"Because you summon it, Kurt's tail is as much a part of him as your hair is a part of you." I stated. "Although it is more useful."

From the corner of my eye I saw the blue mutant stick his tongue out. "Don't mess with the fuzzy man, dude!" I smiled at him. He was a good kid, all of them were. They were lucky to have such a great place to live and train.

The sound of gates grinding against stone made me look to the entrance. A silver cadillac came driving into the front of the mansion.

"We aren't expecting any new student's, are we?" Kurt asked.

"I don't think so. You guys keep practicing." I ordered, walking across the grass of the lawn to the driveway. As I came close the car stopped at the front of the mansion and a young woman stepped out, dressed in an all white, tight, business suit. She had classical features and a pretty face bordered by blonde hair.

"Hello, you must be one of the instructors here at the Xavier Institute." She said in a british accent, looking over my uniform, and giving what looked like a forced smile.

I quickly looked her over. "Who's asking?"

"My name is Emma Frost. I had spoken spoken with Charles a little while ago, he said that he ran a school like the one I work...or used to work at. I was recently laid off and I...I had no idea where else to go." She said with sadness. "He seemed like a kind man, a great council. I thought I could ask him a few questions."

I doubt anyone came to the mansion for that reason."You came here for...career advice?"

"Hey Chelsea, whose…" Scott said opening the front door. He faltered when he saw Emma, jaw hanging open and face going red. "H-Hi. Um, uh, I'm Scott. Scott Summers." He practically bounded down the steps.

"Pleasure. Emma Frost." She shook his hand. "Could you tell me if Professor Charles Xavier is around?"

"Yeah, of course he's just inside his office." Scott beamed. "Let me take your bags for you."

The boy was way too welcoming and eager, unlike the baby drill sergeant I trained with. Oh yeah, he definitely had the hots for this blonde. Then again she was a very, and I do mean very, attractive woman. Jean would just love this…

Kurt appeared next to me in a cloud of smoke. "Who's the hot blonde?"

"Some gal named Frost." I mumbled, as the two went inside.

"You don't sound too happy about her." He said dragging his eyes away from her.

"Shut up…" I growled walking after them. "You're in charge of the kids until I get back, Blue."

The two young adults were stopped in the foyer when a very sweaty, disheveled...ruggedly good-looking-considering-he-just-came-out-of-the-danger-room Logan walked out of the kitchen with a bottle of water...And fuck me, he was shirtless.

"Who's this?" He asked, giving the girl a nod. If all the guys were gonna stop her like this it was going to take them a month to get to Charles's office. She gave her introduction and business before her and scott started to walk up the stairs.

"She was a teacher? She looks like she's Jean's age." He said to me and he took a sip of his water.

"It's hard to believe, I know." My god his abdominal muscles are unearthly.

"Enjoying the view?" His tone snapped me out of my thoughts. Damn it, he must have seen me staring.

"If you walk around shirtless with a body like that you gotta be ready to get a few looks." I chuckled. I think his pecs might be bigger than my breasts.

"Well I'm sure you would turn a few heads if you did the same thing. But with that Frost gal around... you might have competition. Did you see the rack on her"

"Yeah, like two mushy globes stuck to her chest. And of course I'd turn heads if I walked around shirtless, this house is filled with adolescent males. But common', I've always had competition with Jean and Storm. Heck if I had to, I'd probably go gay for Ororo."

He grinned at me. "Can I watch."

I slapped him in the chest, making him laugh. "Hypothetically."

"I know Chels, I know. Just kidding around. And sure those ladies are good looking, maybe you're right. You probably had competition all your life." He teased.

"Yeah and I usually crush it." I smirked. "...Wanna make a bet?"

"What kinda bet?"

"I bet you I can get a guy's number in under five minutes at any bar. You choose the place. I don't care."

"And the prize?"

"How about three rounds of drinks...and a steak."

He stuck out his hand to shake. "I can't say no to that." We shook on it, and he walked off. And boy does his ass look good in those pants.

D-X-M

After I told the kids they were done with training I pulled Kitty aside.

"Shadowcat, your good with styling right?" I asked. Her face lit up like I had just given her a puppy.

She bounced on the balls of her feet. "Are you asking me to style you?!"

"More or less I guess so. I just need your-"

"Oh my god! I'm so happy you asked me! I mean that leather jacket is soo-"

"Hey, hey, don't dis the jacket." I said firmly. "I just wondered if you might have a curling iron and know someone who possibly might have a shirt that might be a little too big."

"Well what type of shirt are you looking for?" She asked as we started up the mansion steps.

"Uh, I don't know. Something that shows off enough chest to say 'I'm open' but also covers enough to state 'You got to work for me'."

"I might have something. Why don't you have anything like that?"

"My whole wardrobe is practical tanks and t-shirts, kiddo. I don't necessarily do alluring clothing."

She rose an eyebrow at me. "Alluring huh? Got a date? Oh my god is it with Logan?!" She squealed. "I was wondering when he would ask you out, like have you seen the way he looks at you? He admires you so much it's adorable and you guys are perfect together!"

"Whoa, whoa, don't get over excited. Me and him have a bet going on and I just need to look good to win it, that's all. Nothing close to date related. Besides I'm sure he looks at me the same way he does with Storm or Jean...which better be respect."

I saw her face fall. "Oh, sorry. I just thought you guys might be hooking up finally. You'd be pretty cute together. That and the students have some bets going on ourselves."

Now it was my time to raise an eyebrow. "Bets on who Logan is going to hook up with?"

She nodded. "For the longest time we all thought him and Storm would get together, it was just a matter of when. But when he brought you back here the bets were changed to who he would choose."

"That's so immature." I snorted. But I couldn't help but be a bit intrigued. "Why not do these bets with the proff or Beast?"

She shrugged. "Neither of them are really.. "active" , if you get my drift."

"Ookay, don't need to know anything else." I nodded. "You know Logan will wring your guys's necks if he ever finds out."

"Eh, I have nothing to worry about. I'm one of his favorites." She smirked. "Now, let's see what I can do for you."

D-X-M

It was sunset and I was just about to leave to wherever Logan planned when Charles popped his voice into my head.

"Everyone, please meet in the dining hall five minutes earlier than usual for dinner."

His sudden invasion of my mind made me jump. "Charlie, I swear I'm gonna come after you for doing that one of these days."

I headed downstairs to find most of the teens and staff in the dining hall already. Kitty ran over to me. "Hey you look great, but where's the shirt I gave you?"

"You gave me a V-neck two sizes too small. Kid, I am a lot bigger than what it is and because of it my cleavage is practically falling out." I motioned to my zipped up jacket. "Don't really want to show off around here."

She sighed. "Whatever, as long as you can win your bet. What's with the early gathering anyway?"

As if on cue Charles rolled in with the Frost girl who had come by earlier. "Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Ms. Emma Frost. She will be staying at the institute for the next week." I could see a bunch of the guys gawk at her from my peripheral vision. After a few minutes of people trying to introduce themselves to her I got a tap on the shoulder.

"Ready to go?" Logan asked.

"Yep. Let's go." We walked out to the garage and he tossed me a helmet, which meant… "Gee, are we finally close enough for me to ride on your bike?" I smiled sarcastically.

"Don't take it as an open invitation." He returned cynically as he sat down. "Now hop on."

After riding into the city we parked in front of a very rough looking bar. Yelling and the sound of an announcer flooded out the door.

"This the place?" I took my helmet off and unzipped my jacket.

"Yep, hope you're up for a challenge Chels because the guys in here are...You're not wearing that are you?"

I caught him staring and was a bit surprised. "Yeah, so what?"

"Zip your jacket up."

" _Why_?" I rose an eyebrow at his demand

"Chels, look the guys here aren't very considerate. You walk in, showing off in a shirt like that and you're going to be getting a lot of unwanted attention."

"Logan please. If I can deal with Hydra and the harassment they gave me I'm sure I can deal with some drunk guys." I gave the edge of his jacket a tug. "Besides, it will just make it easier for me to win this bet and kick your ass. Now are we going or not?"

We walked up the steps and inside, a dimly lit hallway lead to a large room further back in the building. In the center of the room was a giant cage, two men battling it out inside of it. One end of the room had bleachers to watch the fight from, and the other end had a long bar.

The bar keep saw us and waved. "There's my favorite fighter! How's it going Wolverine?"

"They know your codename?" I leant in and asked the man by my side.

"Use it as my fight name too." He said as we walked up.

"The usual?" The barkeep asked as he took out a whiskey glass. Logan nodded and the bartender slid it over to him before looking at me. "And for you, doll?

"Gin martini." He gave me a smirk and a shake of the head before whipping around the bar to make the drink.

"Martini, really?" Logan asked sympathetically.

"I don't usually like them, but a drink can say a lot about someone." I said with confidence. "Now, why don't you go sign up for a fight or something and let me work my magic." I gave his chin a little push with my middle and forefinger, making him walk away.

Now let's see...target… Identified. A guy at the edge of the crowed who I could tell kept looking over in my direction. And just add a little eye contact, looking up through my lashes, a smile aaaand here we go.

"Hey there." He said as he walked up to me.

"Hey yourself." I gave him a once over look, making sure to make eye contact with him again as I came up. "How's the fight over there going?"

"Uh not too bad. The big guy's winning, which my buddy over there is happy about."

"Let me guess: He bet some money on the fight?" I smirked.

"Yep… Hey don't mind me asking but what's a girl like you doing in a place like this?"

'Getting straight to the point' I thought. "What do you mean a girl like me?" I asked, leaning back against the bar.

"Martini, classy makeup. Your a lot more feminine than most of the ladies here. You don't necessarily fit in with the crowed."

"Is that a bad thing?" I stepped closer, trying to make my voice seductive.

He smiled, a lopsided grin. "Not at all. In fact it makes you stand out in the best way."

"I'm flattered." I looked away with a smile. "Want me to buy you a drink?"

"I'm good but how about I buy you another one?" He said leaning over the bar, signalling for the waiter to come over.

"My what a gentleman. You sure know how to treat a gal don't you?" He smiled at the compliment. "I'm Chelsea by the way. And you are…?"

"Andy." He said, shaking my hand gently. Pfffff, men! Always thinking we're made of glass.

"Classic name, in fact it's one of my favorite names in general." Lie. "So Andy, is there any chance I might be able to get your number?"

His eyes lit up. "Uh, sure, of course!" He rummaged in his pocket, pulling out a pen and scribbling some digits down on a napkin. "Here you go."

"Thank you." I cood. "Oh, do you mind if I head over there real quick? I'll be back in a sec, one of my friends is waving me over." I flashed a friendly smile before walking over to the crowd around the cage. Logan was on the other side at the edge.

"Got a number in under five minutes." I said, slamming the napkin down on the table. I took another sip of my martini. "And according to our bet this means you owe me my next round and a stake."

"So it does." He sighed. "Don't mind me asking, but why a stake?"

"I was hungry when we made the bet, alright? It was the second thing to pop into my mind."

He chuckled, and took a look at the napkin. "You gonna go back and talk to the guy?"

I shook my head. "Nah, he wasn't really my type."

"And your type is…?"

"More rugged. Tougher. He seemed to just be your average nine to five in an office boy whose only exercise is a quick run before work."

"Yeah he did seem out of place here. Seemed a bit too pansy to be a regular in here." He smirked. "If you're looking for tough, there's plenty of that here. Now, try not to get too carried away while I'm in the ring, 'kay Chels."

He walked off. Well if he's gonna be in the ring then I might as well watch him beat some poor ass's ass.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen! Returning to the ring is the bar favorite, the town's champion, the destroyer of most any sons of a bitches who dare to take him on, the Woooolverien!" Someone with a gravely voice announced from within the cage, the ref no doubt. Logan stepped in, not really showing off at all except for slamming his fists together in anticipation and cracking his neck. I don't know how many guys stepped in to fight him and were knocked out or knocked senseless but I lost count after six. After a while the intercom came on again. "How about we mix things up tonight? We have a new fighter here in the ring! He's young and hungry for victory, he's big, he's strong, the unbreakable, the immovable, BLOB!"

A mountain of a man stepped into the ring, well tried to actually. He got stuck in the doorway, which he pried open with his bare hands.

' _Mutant_ ' I thought to myself. There no way any normal person could stretch that cage, or walk with all that weight without extra strength. As he got under the bright cage lights, I realized he was only a kid, probably 17 or 18.

I took a glance at Logan, and I could see him grimace at the guy, his mouth mumbling something.

The Blob guy entered the ring cockily. He shouldn't have. Although Logan struggled a bit, he beat the obese kid's ass in under 10 minutes.

"Winner!" Said the ref, holding up Logan's hand, who was breathing hard from the fight. He tore his hand away and exited the ring while Fred struggled to get up, like a turtle stuck on its back.

Logan stormed over to the bar, slamming his fist down. I made my way through the crowed to see what he was so worked up about.

"Where's Jeb?" He demanded from the barkeep.

"Not here. He took the night off." The man behind the counter said. "Why? What's the problem? Unfair match? Looked pretty fair to me."

Logan sighed. "Just tell him I'm pissed that he's bringing minors into the ring."

"Minors? I get that this guy looks young, he's got a baby face but I'm pretty sure he's over 21."

"The guy goes to school with the kids from the Xavier institute. Believe me he's just a teenager."

"And you know this how?"

Logan gave a sharp whistle over to the guy they were talking about who had just stepped out of the ring. "Hey, Blob! Get your fat ass over here."

Fred frowned, stomping over. "What'd you say, gramps?"

"What grade you in?"

He opened his mouth but then closed it abruptly. "None, I'm not in high school."

"Alright fine." Logan pulled out his phone and showed the kid a photo of Jean and him. "Mind telling me who this girl is as how you know her though."

Fred smiled. "That's Jean, she was in my pottery class."

"And she only graduated last year." Logan pointed out. "Even if you had done the same, you're still not allowed to be in here."

Fred's face turned red in anger as he fumbled for a comeback. "Hey listen little man, I need this money and no one is gonna get in the way of it." He finally said, his tone filled with rage. He took a step forward grabbing for Logan, and I suddenly found myself putting myself between them.

"Hey, knock it off kiddo." I pushed his hand back, shifting my arm just enough to use the extra strength of my dragon form. "Don't want to cause a scene here."

He pulled back with a grin. "You got a girl to stand up for you old man? That's pathetic."

"Chels, back off." Logan ordered from behind me.

I put my hand up to stop him from going on. "Listen kid you might fight for fun, but believe me this lifestyle is going to bite you in the ass in a few years. I used to be a professional fighter myself, I'm only 27 and I already have a bad knee and wrist from it." I lied. I dug around in my pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. "Here, you look like a guy that likes to eat. Go get some ice cream or something."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"Do you want the cash or not?" I growled.

He was silent before snatching it from my hand. "I don't get injured like you normal people." He said lowly before walking off.

"Why'd you do that?"

"Because the two of you obviously would tear this place apart thanks to anger management issues and a need to prove something." I flatly put, turning to Logan. "And I would prefer if you didn't get into a brawl in a place I find entertaining."

"Entertaining?"

"Yeah, it's nice to see other people fight besides the kids at the mansion. Any chance they have a ladies night in the ring?"

He gave me a look that seemed to say 'I can't believe you'. "Look Chels, just let me handle my own battles. I don't need you stepping in and playing hero."

"Fine, sure...proud jackass." I mumbled.

"I heard that."

"And I don't care." I smiled back. "And don't forget you still owe me my prize."

He sighed, turning to the guy behind the bar. "Give her whatever she wants."

The bartender turned to me. "I will have… A gin and tonic, and then a jalapeño vodka, and after those I think all have… A scotch on the rocks." The guy looked at me as if I were crazy.

"Are you sure you can handle that?"

I held out my hand to Logan who reluctantly gave me a 50. "Believe me, I'm sure."

The drinks I bought barely phased me, but after I was offered a round of shots and got involved in a drinking contest, I was tipsy … but only a little.

"Ha! Beat that you light weight!" I slammed my shot glass down on the table and the few people watching me, and they third guy who challenged me, cheered.

The guy was slouching over, completely wasted. "You...you're cheatin sm' how." He slurred, pointing at me.

"You calling me a fraud?!" I growled shooting up from my seat. My world spun a little bit.

"D'ers no way… you can drink… 24...shots of tequila… and not be drunk."

I picked up the last shot on the tray and downed it. "Make it 25, dip-shit." A hand latched around my arm and pulled me away from my tournament. "Hey, let go!"

"You're done." Logan growled, pulling me towards the door.

"Oh yeah, who says?" asked as he dragged me towards the door.

"The guy who's tab you've been using all night, which happens to be me."

"Loosen up."

"Would you just-" I put my hand up, stopped him as we walked over the front threshold onto the street. "What?"

Was I? Nah I wasn't, it would be fine. Oh wait, shit nope-

*BURP* A huge column of fire burst from my mouth, reaching out a good twenty feet in front of me. People who had been walking around stopped and stared at us.

"Uh… MAGIC!" I exclaimed before pulling Logan over to his bike. "I will let you know I am _not_ happy about this, but get me out of here before I release another inferno!" I hissed in his ear.

He eyed me with a reluctant expression before nodding. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea." We drove along the road that lead to the institut, finally coming to the huge estate and parked in the garage.

"Why are you going to the kitchen?" Logan asked as soon as we entered the front door and I walked over to said room.

"I need to bring my B.A.C back down to normal." I responded as I dug through the fridge finding a pitcher of water and started to drink it. "I doubt anyone would be happy if I accidentally burnt this place down because I couldn't keep my mouth shut."

"Well now I know you start to go downhill after vodka, scotch, and about thirty shots of tequila."

I shrugged. "Does this mean you're gonna be a chaperone or something when we go out to bars now?"

He chuckled then sighed. "Maybe, hopefully in time you can handle yourself. Plus you're pretty fun to watch when you get cocky about drinking games."

"Glad to be such good entertainment." I laughed half-heartedly

Scott suddenly walked in, talking to whoever was behind him. "Yeah I know right it's crazy!"

"What's crazy?"

He turned as if just realising we were there. "Oh, nothing. Just that one time Duncan tried to hunt down the Morlocks with his buddies."

Emma walked in after him. "I just can't believe Jean would date someone like that." She added as she went to the cabinet and looked around for something. "Scott where did you say the chips were?"

"Middle shelf to the left." He said, staring at her as she got up on her toes.

"So what are you kids still doing up?" I asked, taking another large gulp of water.

"Just talking, getting to know each other…. did you know Emma was a teacher? She's only a year older than me!" He laughed.

"Yes well, not all of us can be geniuses can we." She placed a delicate hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Frost don't mind me asking but. What's your mutation exactly?" I asked.

"Telepathy, and from your thoughts right now i am correct that you are displeased with such insight?"

"Great, another one…." I mumbled under my breath. "Didn't Charles tell you insight is prohibited without consent?"

"I'm barely looking into your mind, your thoughts are practically shouting a warning about not going into your head." She said. "Then again, it doesn't seem like there's much in there that would be useful."

Now I am okay with being called stupid, I never passed the tenth grade, I wasn't exactly up to date on all the bull shit the american education system was implanting in young minds for no use. I was street smart and that's what mattered. I was also coming off a buzz of booze so I wasn't exactly in my best temperament at the moment. "Are you calling me an air head, blondie?"

"All I'm saying is at the moment there seems to be nothing of use for anyone in there right now...Just a bowl of temper and hormones following basic instinct."

"...This bitch just called me feral!" I slammed the jug of water down on the kitchen island and would have leapt at Frost if it weren't for Logan holding me back.

"That's enough. Here drink, you still smell like a bar." He handed the jug of water back to me. "Then go get some sleep alright? You're too riled up to be negotiated with."

I gave him a low growl before walking up the stairs and to my room. "Negotiable… i'll show you negotiable…" I mumbled kicking my boots off and slipping out of my jeans after I finished off the water. Deep down past all the stubbornness, I knew he was right. When I was on the edge of drunk I could get bit too aggressive. And sleep was the only remedy for that at the moment.

-D-X-M-

I was restless all night. It felt like all my thoughts were swarming around, some more predominant and loud, others just murmurs of memories. It felt like I was giving someone a slideshow of my everything I had endured. Most dreams took place here at the institute, but a few were back in the Hydra labs and prison keeps, such as the one I was reliving right now…

 _I was thrown into a cell in the recreational_ bunking _section. My roommate who was propped up on her bunk gave me a cold stare until the guard left, elongated-cat like ears_ twitching twitching _impatiently._

 _"Thank god you're alright." She finally said jumping down from her bunk and landing silently. "None of us thought you'd be coming back from solitary. You were in there for over a week, and you know what that usually means…"_

 _"Yeah, well, it's good to be back. I missed_ you _Bast." I smiled at her. "Now, mind helping me onto my bunk so that I can tell you what happened?"_

 _She did so with quite some effort. I was too weak to walk on my own properly yet from the last operation I had performed. "Do tell how you came back from the dead." She mocked, her citrine eyes standing out too much against her dark skin to not betray her curiosity._

 _"They had me under hormone treatment, guess they thought I'd be too aggressive to be kept around other inmates." I scoffed. "Which probably would have been true."_

 _"Hormone treatment? For what?"_

 _"Harvesting...Pretty sure they took a few of my eggs to freeze them." I said uncomfortably. "Do you know how they even do that? They actually had to stick a syringe up into my-"_

 _"Shut up, shut up, shut up. I don't need to hear that." Bastet stopped me before I could say another word. "How'd they treat you while you went through it? Is Rowner still…?"_

 _"Showing his favoritism? Not as much since I broke his nose last time." I chuckled at the thought of one of my only satisfying moments here. "And he still has the scar."_

 _"Wish I had the chance to do that. I tell you, if I could have this collar off for one minute and not have to worry about being electrocuted-" She started, motioning to the metal collar around her neck. The one around all of our necks._

 _"You would cut his heart out, I know. You've bragged about it a hundred times." I said, rolled my eyes. "How are the others doing?"_

 _"Alright, our little lava rock and ocean girl are finally standing up for themselves."_

 _"Please, Pele has always been a bit tougher than Kai."_

 _She gave me a_ half hearted _chuckle. "Yeah, guess so. They got in a fight out with some other kids, Pele got beaten by the guards pretty badly, and Kai had to step up to defend her."_

 _"They got in a fight?"_

 _"It wasn't too horrific, they recovered quick enough." She reassured me._

 _"Anyone else_ get _into trouble?"_

 _"No, but Malcolm…"_

 _"What? What's wrong with him? Did he have another breakdown?" I asked panicked, wincing as I tried to sit up. "Last time he lost control he used up all his energy. He was under intensive care for days. Please tell me he hasn't done that again."_

 _"No, no nothing that bad. He did flip out though a couple of days ago. They put him back in solitary to make sure nobody else got hurt." she saw my questioning gaze and gave a nod. "Four guards. He banged them up pretty bad before he was gotten under control."_

 _I sighed leaning back. At least he was okay… for now. "That boy needs to learn control…"_

It all stopped when I was woken up by a knock at the door.

"Chelsea, you up? We have a training exercise at 6." Storm's voice said through my wooden door.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, just give me a sec." I called back, eyes still half closed as I searched around for my uniform. I hopped to open the door, pulling on my red boot. "Did Charles tell us this last night?"

"Yes, while you and Logan were out drinking." She said with a smug expression of pity at my struggle to neaten up my hair. "Maybe it would be a better idea to limit your drinking to Saturday nights, that way you won't have to worry about sessions the next morning."

"Yeah, no kidding." I sighed rubbing my temples.

"Hung over?"

"Ha! Takes a lot more than just a few rounds of tequila to cause a hangover for me." I chuckled. "Just didn't sleep too well. Pretty restless I guess."

She chuckled at my misfortune. "After today's training I'll make you some peppermint tea. It always seems to clear my head."

"Thanks 'Ro."

"I see you've picked up on the nicknames Logan gives us?"

"Well they are catchy." I shrugged. "Are the pet names limited to only his use?"

"Feel free to use them, but I prefer Ororo while infront of the students." She admitted as she pressed the elevator button. The doors opened and we took the lift down to the bottom levels. We entered the Danger Room, which today only had the older teammates for training. Scott, Jean, Logan, Beast, Remy, Piotr… And Emma.

"Hey Ms. Britain, you sure you can fight in that?" I called after evaluating what she was wearing.

She looked down at her suit, if you could call it that, before looking back up at me with an uninterested expression. She wore tight, tight white pants, heeled boots, and a top that seemed to be more of a bra than anything else, along with a cape. I didn't even know we were allowed to use white fabrics for our uniforms considering everyone else wore black.

"What I lack in physical capability I make up with mental skill. And if you've ever looked inside a man's head, you'd know they all have one weakness." She mused.

"I'll say." Gambit crooned his neck over to get a better look at her chest. His face suddenly went blank as he turned away.

"Didn't Chuck warn you about those mind games?" Logan sneered as he pulled his mask over his face, giving the blonde a dirty glare.

"And what makes you think I'm using my powers?"

"I can smell your concentration." He answered.

"You can smell concentration?" I lifted an eyebrow at him. "What, can you also smell when someone is lying?"

"Yep." He must have seen my surprised expression because he sighed and started to explain the science of it. "When you lie your heart rate speeds up and different endorphins are released."

"Guys, can we get to training?" Scott asked impatiently.

"Alright Scotty no rush, what have you got planned today?"

D-X-M

I hated Frost. I hated Frost. I . Hated. _Frost._

I could stand the telepathy. I could stand when she suddenly turned into diamond and almost cracked my tooth. I could stand that all the guys were too distracted by her boobs that were falling out of her shirt to give all their attention to the lesson at hand. What I could not stand were her psychic attacks.

It was simple at first. They just felt like really intense five second migraines. for whatever reason

Chuck allowed this, arguing we were at less risk, and realistic circumstances in training would help. We were given a simple task: defend ourselves in an obstacle course within a maze. Everyman was for himself at the start, but if we collided with other members we could team up, but only if we thought it would benefit both of us, if not we were supposed to fight. I was almost done, and I don't know what it was or why she did it but this bitch sent what felt like a fucking psychic spear through my head. I had collapsed to the ground in pain unable to focus on my surroundings.

"Dragoness, get up!" I heard Jean telepathically order me. "You almost made it to the end, and one of the drones is coming this way."

"I can't open my eyes without it feeling like my skull will explode let alone get up!" I shouted back. I felt her levitate me off the ground. "What are you doing I'm gonna weigh you down!"

"I don't care, I'm not gonna leave you." She thought to me. I could feel the air start to run pass me, which meant she was levitating me with her, technically making me fly. Wow, admiration for that. "I'm gonna try and relieve her attack but I'm going to need you to let me into your head."

I groaned at the thought but the pain was unbearable. "Fine, make it quick."

My brain felt fuzzy for a minute before what felt like a wave of cold water rushed into my head. It cleared, and to my relief I was able to open my eyes without pain. "There all done."

"Wow, thanks Red." I gave her smile. "Now let's go finish this course so I can wring the Brit's neck."

I could see her shake her head in my peripheral vision. "Do you have to be so violent?"

"Yep. She should have thought about the reproductions of her actions." I snarled as we ran through the maze. "I can bare her almost chipping my tooth but the moment you play with my mind you're dead meat."

"How did she do that?"

"It was partially my fault. I did almost bite her arm off, but I wasn't expecting her turning into diamond."

"You what?!" I stuck my arm out in front of her as A drone flew at us, and would have hit us if I hadn't blasted it with fire.

"Can you keep your questions for after training?" We finished the course and met Logan and Scott at the finish line. Frost was there too.

I felt like a switch was flipped. "I'm going to kill you, diamond girl!" I growled running towards her. Scott stood defensively in front of her and Logan caught me around my waist, holding me back as I jumped at her.

"Woah, take it easy Chels."

"Don't you fuckin tell me to take it easy." I snarled, turning my body around in his grasp so that my stomach was against his chest to face him. "She attacked me with a psychic blast or whatever you want to call it!"

"So?"

"Soooo the prof said no insight powers!" I took a breath and sighed. "Logan, put me down, your hand is slipping onto my ass."

He dropped me immediately. Frost chuckled from behind me. "I wasn't using insight I was using my telepathy to apprehend your neurotransmitters." She smugly looked at me. "There's a difference. Loopholes, maybe you've heard of them?"

I took another deep breath trying to calm my growing anger. "You know what forget it. Just take it into consideration not all of us enjoy mind games."

"That's because brutes can only use physical strength." She mumbled under her breath, probably thinking no one heard.

"Oh that is it!" I lunged at her again only for Logan to catch me, again.

"What is wrong with you today?" He growled trying to keep me from crawling over his shoulder.

"I had to get up at 5:30 after sleeping with god forsaken PTSD flashbacks all night, and then had to deal with a her shocking my brain!"

He sighed obviously getting fed up. "How about we go get some beer after this, hm? That calm you down?"

I stared at him. For fucks sake he could be such an idiot. "...It's 7 a.m."

The room let out an alarm that signaled the end of the session. Logan gave Scott and Emma a nod, signalling for them to leave. I growled baring my teeth as the blonde passed. Scott's hand pressed against her back, beckoning her away. The doors closed behind them, leaving Jean, Storm, Beast, me, and Logan, who still held me around my waist off the floor. He gave me a look after making sure they were gone. "I'm gonna put you down, and you better not run after them."

"I'm not a kid, you don't have to use that tone with me." He dropped me.

"You're acting like one."

I was about to shoot back a remark but Ororo stepped between us. "I think you two should separate for a while. Chelsea, come with me I have something for you." She walked toward the door, and I followed behind her, although begrudgingly.

We took the elevator to the very top level of the mansion, the attic, and she led me to a door on one side. The room it led to looked like a greenhouse. Plants hung on the walls and rested in pots on tables. Three huge windows looked out over the school. It smelt of dirt, moisture, and sunlight, a combination that was oddly soothing.

"Is this where you always disappear to?" I asked looking at the different assortment of plants and flowers.

"Yes, it's where I come to think and get away from the chaos of the mansion." She said walking over to a small machine in one corner next to a garden sink, a small tea kettle. "The children call it "Ororo's Roost", a fitting name don't you think?"

"Yeah, guess so." We chatted as she boiled some water and pulled out two mugs. She handed me one with a tea bag in it.

"Chamomile and peppermint; eases stress." She explained before I could ask. "You definitely seem like you could use something like it."

"I'm I really that bad?"

She chuckled. "You tried to attack another team member. You're usually quite cool and collected when it comes to emotions. So considering you snapped… yes you were pretty bad."

I let out a half-hearted laugh. "Guess so...It's just…" I bit my lip. "Let's just say I've never liked mind readers. Or telepaths. Or any powers that involve mental openness. I have trouble getting use to anyone with those powers and trusting them."

"Can you tell me why?" I shot her a look but she held her gaze. "It's proven to help when you relieve your troubles to others."

I sighed, knowing she was right, and maybe sharing my demons might help with my issues. Besides, Ororo was beyond trustworthy. "Back when I was a test subject in Hydra, one of the prime subjects was a kid who could relay thoughts from one person to another. Think like a transmitter for cell phones." She nodded understanding. " He could do it to anybody, consent or not. He could make you relive the most horrid things he had absorbed over his years there, or drain your own experiences. The doctors brainwashed him at an early age, or long ago or something because he was their devoted probing drone." I stopped, the tea suddenly starting to taste bitter. "He, uh...He was used a lot on me for punishment. We'd sit in a room, strapped to chairs, and he'd just stare at me; relaying these thoughts to me. I was always in trouble and so those sick bastards there thought that enforcing these experiences and memories of others on us was a good way to break prisoners. It was a smart idea."

She didn't say anything, nor did she give me a sympathetic look, but instead one of understanding. "In my village back in Africa, there was a witch doctor who was obsessed with obtaining my powers for his own use. He once succeeded through controlling my spirit." She stared out the large windows, a fog covering her eyes, a fog I knew all too well. "It was like everything that was me disappeared, all emotion,all character, all morals, all life...Did you ever feel as if you were watching yourself be controlled by someone else? But you're stuck in a box, and no matter how much you scream or fight, this other person has taken all that is yours, and leaves nothing but a husk."

I pursed my lips. "Yeah, yeah I know what you mean"

* * *

 **Wow, I actually uploaded this. This mofo has been sitting in my computer for months and I just uploaded it... WHAT AM I DOING W MY LIFE**


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